Tube workers' pensions

Tube Lines staff have won their long fight for pensions and pay parity with other LU workers. A long-running union campaign has secured equal access to the TfL Pension Fund for all existing and future Tube Lines staff, as well as a pay uplift at the same level secured across the rest of LU.

Tube Lines engineering and maintenance workers have voted by over 85% for strikes, after LU refused to discuss ongoing pensions issues until after the launch of Night Tube.

Pensions is just one of a series of struggles Tube Lines workers currently face: there are also outstanding issues relating to pay, and Night Tube staffing levels.

The huge majority for strikes, and the even bigger one for action short of strikes, shows the strength of feeling on these issues.

When the government's law requiring all employers over a certain size to provide a workplace pension scheme came into effect, cleaning contracted ISS launched an "off the shelf" pension with a company called NOW. Workers have been paying into the scheme ever since.

Tubeworker HQ recently received a report of a particularly shocking demonstration of the company’s lack of concern for its staff.

A worker who had a heart attack hasn’t heard from his manager once; not even an “are you alright?” email!

Moreover, the worker’s doctor told them they’d seen several similar heart cases down the years. The common feature in all of them? Shift working, and particularly working nights.

Amid all the attention (rightly) going to the London Underground strike, let us not forget that RMT members are on strike on Transport for London too.

Believe it or not, TfL proposes to freeze workers' pensionable pay at their current wage rate, so that all future rises are lump sums and non-pensionable - oh, and "performance-related".

We know that the bosses are trying to take away both our jobs and our pensions in the Government's austerity drive.

Our bosses have shown their hand and stated that they intend to close the TfL Pension Fund to new entrants. This will mean that new starters get enrolled into an inferior scheme, and also spells disaster for current members - the Fund will shrink and become less secure, inevitably leading to attacks on the benefits we can expect to receive from it.

Tube Lines to be reintegrated into London Underground! The headline on management's bulletin wanted us to believe that this was all good news, in the manner of Cilla Black reuniting long-lost siblings.

But read past the headline and you will see two big devils in the detail: firstly, that only support and projects staff are coming back in (to TfL and LU APD, respectively), not maintenance workers; and that the transferring staff will not be allowed to join the TfL Pension scheme.

Tube Lines' new management - aka. London Underground Ltd! - need a little time to think about whether they can afford to meet our demand for equal pensions and passes, apparently.

They reckon they might be able to afford it if we make some sacrifices: or jobs, pay and conditions, perhaps? They seem to be forgetting that equality is our RIGHT, not something that we should have to pay for. The company can look elsewhere for the cost, perhaps into their own overstuffed pockets, or to the wasteful system of contracts and consultants that litters their outfit.

From Thursday and over the weekend, let’s hit management hard to press our demand for pensions and passes equality. We want maximum support in every Tube Lines workplace to maximise our chances of winning.
Every RMT member should be out on Thursday, and members of other unions should remember the golden rule: you never cross a picket line. With ASLEF moving into dispute with Tube Lines as well, members can show their willingness to fight by respecting the picket lines today.