"Tubeworker" says: it is not safe to work without fire cover

Submitted by martin on 27 October, 2002 - 1:52

The new issue of the Workers' Liberty Tubeworker bulletin, downloadable here, says that Tube workers should refuse to operate trains and stations during FBU strikes on grounds of safety.
The unions, RMT and ASLEF, have circulated leaflets informing workers about their rights to refuse to work in what they consider unsafe conditions, but Tubeworker is the only literature circulated to Underground workers making an outright call to refuse.

The FBU's suspension of its strike action, the same day, has made some of the text in this Tubeworker out of date, but with a few sentences deleted the rest is still valid, and should help preparations for FBU strikes due from 6 November.
In some depots, activists are planning to canvass drivers before the strike date and get them to prepare in advance the standard letters refusing to work without fire service cover. On the day of any strike, activists will be on the spot at the time the strike starts, encouraging drivers to refuse to take out trains.

Station staff face more problems in coordinating action, but every station supervisor has the right to declare a station unsafe and then start a standard London Underground procedure. That procedure can lead to a higher manager taking over the station and reopening it - but how many managers will the Underground have available for such work?

A new issue of Tubeworker will be out soon.

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