Tubeworker's blog

DLR prepare to strike over imposed rosters

Control room staff working for Docklands Light Railway are balloting for strike action at the minute over imposition of rosters. They have worked a 12 hour roster for 14 years. Now they are being told to work 8 hour shifts instead, which will mean working an extra 24 weekends a year. DLR...

Pay Claim - put a figure on it

The first round of pay talks is looming, and RMT has announced its claim, as follows:

  • A substantial increase in rates of pay for all grades and additional protection for the lowest paid grades in the form of a minimum salary of £26,000
  • Improved travel facilities for non-safeguarded employees
  • A...

LUL Disciplines Kings Cross 7

LUL is pursuing its disciplinary action against the 'Kings Cross 7', SAMFs who quite rightly walked out of the ticket office in protest against the deployment of an SRT Supervisor to cover a duty, in breach of the Framework Agreement.

Management are obviously quite appalled by the very idea...

Roster Rejected

Kings Cross management wanted to bring in a new roster for CSAs, but staff objected because of various issues including the lack of decent rest periods. So management went back to the drawing board, and have come back with a new roster with so few changes that you can barely notice them! And what...

Season of Goodwill?

So LUL management want some of us to work on Christmas Day but are only prepared to offer us double pay and one poxy day off in lieu which we would have got anyway?! Scrooge lives on, apparently.

We should also be wary of management using this as the thin end of a wedge the thick end of which is...

Acton Town's sick system

Acton Town station staff have been alarmed to receive 'guidelines' on sickness reporting from local management which bear little resemblance to company policy.

As if company policy were not strict enough, Acton Town management have taken it upon themselves to attempt to impose a "regime" (their...

EDF Strike

EDF Supply, technicians who take care of faults with the electricity that powers the Tube, took 36 hours of strike action on Sunday and Monday. The action was solid. There was a strong picket line at their base at Tufnell Park and a demo outside EDF headquarters on Monday.

The strike is over...

Economic Crisis - We Need a Workers' Plan!

During this economic crisis, working class people are being made to go without, while the government finds billions to fund the banks. The ruling economic system, capitalism, has exposed its own inbuilt cycles of booms and busts and the government has shown that its main purpose is to prop up this...

One for the road

Metronet staff were told a few weeks ago that they would be transferred back into LUL by December. Everyone was pleased. This was effectively renationalisation.

Now Metronet have come up with a few more details. The staff will be transferred back into LUL, but the work they do will stay with the...

The basis of our bonus?

A CSA at Euston managed to get 0/100 for SATS. Pretty difficult to do, since you normally get some points for just being there. When it was investigated, it was not the CSA's fault for not being there, but the people that were monitoring it were on the wrong platform!

This is the system that...

CBS Outdoor rep victimised

Brendan Judge, Health and Safety rep for CBS Outdoors poster company has been suspended from his job in a blatant act of trade union victimisation. The company have been making his life difficult since the inspiring and successful strike in the summer, which he helped to organise. First they moved...

Valuing time? Wasting money

LUL is inviting (more accurately, summoning!) all staff to its Valuing Time event, to explain ‘the challenges we face in delivering a world class tube for a world class city’ – as if we don’t get enough challenges every day! And as for valuing time, maybe they should try valuing the frontline staff...

Troubles at Stonebridge

During the forthcoming engineering closures on the Bakerloo line, management have a cunning plan. They think they can send Stonebridge Park station staff to work at Willesden Junction. The minor hitch they seem to have overlooked is that Willesden Junction is not an LUL station. In fact, no LUL...

Pulling The Plug

Shift testers are to strike for two lots of 36 hours against EDF Powerlink's refusal to give them pay parity with day workers. The strikes will be from 19:59 this Sunday, November 16, and from 19:59 on Sunday December 7.

They are also taking 'action short of strikes', refusing to stay on at the end...

No Thnx M8

The Department of Big Ideas at 55 Broadway has come up with a spiffing plan - but kept it secret from staff until hours before they intended to launch it.

They plan to offer customers the opportunity to text them comments on the service, information, and staff! Customers already have the...

T5 CSAs Disappear

Management have withdrawn CSAs from Heathrow Terminal 5.

Readers will remember that this is one of the issues we had a strike ballot (but not an actual strike) about earlier this year. The unions called off the dispute for a statement from management (read the full document and Tubeworker's...

Shh! Don't Tell Anyone About The Asbestos Removal

Management arranged for the removal of asbestos from 18 points at Mornington Crescent without so much as bothering to consult local union health & safety reps. Don't mind us, we only work here.

Perhaps they overlooked the inconvenient fact that asbestos kills; in fact, breathing in just one fibre...

Stop These Displacements

The extent of LUL's threat to displace CSAs is becoming more apparent. Management have finally revealed the figures, admitting that they have over 100 CSAs 'over-establishment' and that this could double as projects such as escalator refurbs finish and staff are 'no longer needed'.

Of course, the...

Government Shelves Flexible Working Rights Extension

Got kids aged between 6 and 16? You were about to get the right to apply for 'flexible working', but Peter Mandelson has scuppered that.

Since Mandelson returned to government (without anyone actually electing him), he has continued where he left off last time - schmoozing with the rich and...

Power Supply Workers To Strike Against Imposed Rosters?

RMT members on EDF Powerlink - the company that supply the Underground's power - have voted by over 90% to strike against the imposition of unacceptable rosters.

Rosters are a crucial issue for workers in all companies that demand shiftwork. It is a crucial issue for our quality of life that our...

Metronet Back In LUL

Metronet is to return fully into London Underground, with all Metronet employees becoming LUL employees - read RMT's press release here. This completes the process of reversing the PPP for two-thirds of the Underground, and is a victory for those of us who have spent the last ten years campaigning...

Stockwell shooting inquest begins

At present an inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes is taking place. This occurred over three years ago in the aftermath of the 7/7 ‘terrorist bombings’.

He was shot 6 times in the head and in full view of passengers on a train at Stockwell. Reports have surfaced that the driver was...

RMT Regional Organiser election: Vote Steve Hedley!

RMT members are about to get a say in a very important election. Not the President of the USA, but the RMT's London Transport Regional Organiser, who will be in charge of the industrial strategy and negotiations with all the companies who were ever part of London Transport - from LUL, to cleaners...

Keeping up the pressure over Tube cleaners’ pay

Cleaners are still not all receiving the London Living Wage they struck for in the summer. At Mayor’s questions in July, Boris publicly promised it to cleaners on Metronet contracts, but not all Metronet companies are paying. Cleaners on Tubelines contracts have a 60p increase but no guarantee of...

Sick System Hits New Low

LUL management's attendance clampdown has plumbed new depths as they have medically terminated a member of staff who was not even sick!

Yes, you read that right. LUL has sacked a CSA on medical grounds who is fully fit for work.

The company did not like her past attendance record. But medical...

Under-Staffed Station Opens

Happily - or perhaps luckily - for LUL, Wood Lane station opened last Sunday without much of a hitch. This is indeed good fortune on the company's part, as the station is woefully understaffed.

They don't even cover the Supervisors' meal breaks, and leave a CSA working alone at certain times of the...

Imposed rosters

Euston staff found out about their new roster when it was posted on a pin board with a notice ‘to take effect from 16th November’. So it looked like it was going ahead, without consulting the unions, breaking the agreement between the unions and management. The roster itself is not much...

Andy Littlechild: Metronet Backs Down

Metronet has backed down in its victimisation of Andy Littlechild and the dispute is now settled. Andy has kept his job and his grade.

This is doubtless due to the strong response from his workmates, who immediately balloted for strike action and made their support for Andy clear. Metronet knew...

Meeting To Plan The Fight

Don't forget tonight's RMT members' meeting, 6.30pm, Friends House. Discuss the pay claim and plan our defence of victimised activists and members.

Tubeworker has long argued that rnak-and-file union members should discuss and decide on what we want in the pay claim rather than just wait for head...

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