Tubeworker's blog

St Pauls: Demanding Dignity

OK, so a station undergoing a refurb is never going to be the most comfortable place to work, but St Pauls became a nightmare. A mess room unfit to eat in, toilets unfit to use, staff feeling vulnerable on the gateline late at night cos the Supervisors' office has been temporarily relocated away...

Bakerloo line: No to Lone Working

LUL management are trying to impose lone working amongst detrainment staff at Willesden Junction and Harrow & Wealdstone. At the moment, minimum staffing at both stations is two. Not exactly over-staffed, eh? But it's too much for management, who seem willing to leave staff vulnerable to save a few...

Wot No Lockers?

Perhaps it's a good job that Metronet workers don't have overalls, cos if they are based at Acton, they'd have nowhere to put them! About 250 engineering grade staff work out of Acton, with five toilets, three showers - and no lockers - between them.

To add insult to injury, they are now barred...

Wot No Overalls?

Metronet workers are missing their overalls. Apparently, Metronet owes the laundry company a shedload of money, so the laundry company won't return the overalls once cleaned!

But it is of no interest to workers which bosses (or accountants) have fallen out with other bosses. What bothers us is...

Wot No Bonus?

Our beloved leader Tim O'Toole has written to us again. Bless him for taking time out of his busy schedule to keep us informed of the state of play of our magnificent system.

The latest bulletin was to tell us what we already knew, that there was not going to be a bonus this year (or any other, but...

Points Failure

Brixton crossover caused major problems on the Vic last week with a 10mph TSR imposed. So new points were shipped in from Spain and installed on Sunday. Just a few days later, the points failed, necessitating a Victoria-Brixton suspension during the day to replace the points motor!

Coincidence? Or...

DLR Sacking Victory

DLR workers have won the reinstatement of a workmate after an unjust sacking. The Train Captain had been sacked - upheld on appeal - for driving through a work party, even though his duties appeared to require him to be at both ends of the train at the same time, and even though a colleague had not...

Aggravated SPAD

A Northern Line DMT on a driving day had an aggravated SPAD. He got a 12-month suspended sacking - but was returned to work at his own depot!

How can he have any credibility dealing with drivers over SPADs when he has disregarded the rules so flagrantly?

Refusing Squalor

P-Way staff at West Kensington got thoroughly fed up with the squalor of the P-Way Cabin. So what did they do? Put up with it? Moan to each other and do nothing? No, they refused to work on the grounds of health and safety and booked on at Griffith House instead.

Then, all of a sudden, after...

SPADs Soar

SPADs have shot up over the last year, rising 18% from 775 last year to a whopping 951 this year.

The cause? Well, remember Tubeworker reporting on those impractical new timetables on the Northern, Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines? Could it be that if you cram too many trains in, then drivers come up...

Call This 'Protection'?

On 11th November, a bunch of Silverlink stations will transfer to 'London Rail', and their employment will transfer to LUL. So, of course, we would expect that their pay and conditions in their new job would be exactly the same as that of their LUL workmates.

But not necessarily. LUL management...

Free Oyster cards?

'Free Oyster cards' scream the headlines, and of course lots of people don't read on and examine the small print. Which says that no, you can't just walk up to a ticket office to get yours, you have to apply online or phone up.

And because they don't read the small print, they do walk up to a...

RMT Cleaners Meet

A group of cleaners and other union activists met on Saturday to take stock of how the cleaners' campaign is going and decide our next steps.

The union's success in stopping 200 redundancies from ISS has been followed by a well attended demonstration outside the mayor's office for a 'Living Wage...

Sanitary Protection?

A night station supervisor at Dagenham East station was disgusted to find the sanitary bin in the toilets overflowing and its contents spilling accross the floor. He reported the fault, but was told it couldn't be dealt with until late the following morning.

It is clear that the 'specialist'...

RMT Victory On Metronet

(This is an initial assessment, as Tubeworker gets to grips with the facts and the issues. Comments and disagreements are, as ever, welcome.)

RMT has called off its strike action on Metronet after what appears to be a full capitulation by management. The union had demanded that the Infraco drop...

How the new Rule Book threatens stations jobs

Under the new Rule Book, Station Supervisors lose the following responsiblities:

  • giving the 'second right' (now called 'assisted despatch') to trains stopped part way out of a platform where there is working in-cab CCTV on which the driver can see the whole of the PTI, or where there are PED doors...

Fight Ticket Office Jobs Cull

At the Stations Functional Council meeting yesterday, LUL management dropped their bombshell - 40 ticket office to close completely, 240 SAMF jobs to go. That's "bombshell" not in the sense of being a surprise: it has long been obvious that further attacks were on the cards. (The Workers' Liberty pa...

No to Violence in the Labour Movement

It is now common knowledge that there was a violent incident after the recent RMT regional council meeting. The union's head office is investiging allegations against both the regional organiser and a rep. Tubeworker is not going to comment on the specifics of the allegations, as we do not want to...

Standing Up To Bullies

Cleaners on the Underground often experience aggressive bullying from their supervisors. No worker should have to experience such degrading treatment as part of their job. It further highlights the lack of respect that cleaning companies have for their workers.

But here's an example of how station...

Don't Let PPP Divide Us

The Metronet strike next week should be a chance for all of us on London Underground who hate PPP - most of us! - to fight the privatisation agenda by showing solidarity with striking contractors.

But some LUL staff have the attitude of 'why should I care about their rights and struggles? We never...

New Rule Book, New Danger

Managers are now giving the new Rule Book out to staff.

LUL has presented this as mainly just a make-over, replacing the unwieldy old Working Reference Manual with the shiny, new, easy-to-read, user-friendly Rule Books. If that was all it is, then fine. But it's not.

Read the little pamphlet that...

Cleaners' Confidence Grows

Cleaners in the RMT on London Underground are gaining the confidence to stand up to supervisors who demand unreasonable extra duties.

One ISS cleaner was asked to work at three different stations in the same day, instead of at her own regular station. She refused, saying that she was tired of being...

Hanging Around Toilets

Ever get that feeling you're being followed? Well, if you're a Central Line driver, it might be true.

At both White City and Leytonstone, drivers taking a PNR have been followed to the khazi by certain DMTs, keen to minimise the hold-up by ensuring you are not loitering.

Drivers are wondering...

Metronet: Overtime Ban Off, Strikes Still On

Following a massive 90+% Yes vote, RMT has called a three-day strike from 18:00 on 15th April, to stop Metronet re-privatising its staff by forcibly transferring them to Bombardier. Metronet's plan not only amounts to treating workers like slaves to be bought and sold, it will also further fragment...

Lonely At The Top

Anyone wondering what the purpose is of LUL's Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Network can find an answer in the latest On The Move - which appears to suggest that it's to help a small number of black people get into senior management jobs!

Now, Tubeworker is in favour of equal opportunities and...

Why Tube Workers Should Support Abortion Rights

Women in Britain have had the right to free, legal and safe abortion since 1967. This right is under attack and should be defended by workers and the trade union movement.

When abortion became legal, women were freed from the danger of backstreet abortions, which had been one of the biggest causes...

Leafleting Against East London Line Privatisation

RMT will be dishing out leaflets explaining the case against East London Line privatisation on Thursday 12 April from 0800–0900 at Whitechapel, Canada Water and New Cross stations on the East London Line.

Come along and dish out a few yourself.

Protest for a Living Wage for Cleaners

  • London Living Wage NOW
  • 28 days holiday minimum NOW
  • Cleaners to be directly employed

Protest on Wedesday April 4th at 9.30am at City Hall, The Queen's Walk, More London SE1 2AA. Nearest station: London Bridge.

Note to RMT: It's great that loads of leaflets have gone out across the job, but it would...

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