At yesterday's Joint Working Party meeting about job cuts, the unions raised some points about the process and received answers to questions we raised at the previous week's Company Council meeting. These issues are listed below. You will notice that in most cases, the company is not giving clear answers to the unions' questions, which reinforces RMT's view that it is not talking to us in good faith.

Moreover, while London Underground stalls our questions and repeatedly promises to answer "next week", it presses ahead with its plans to slash job. This shows you why your union firmly believes that industrial action will be necessary in order to compel London Underground to talk to us seriously about our objections to its savage job cuts.

Also discussed at the JWP were station groups reorganisation and voluntary severance.

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We started out by pointing out to management that under the terms of agreement between the company and RMT/ASLEF in 2001, London Underground is supposed to negotiate staffing levels with the unions, rather than just consult us. The difference can be important, as negotiations are supposed to achieve an agreement, whereas consultation can often just consist of letting us sound off then going ahead anyway. Management have so far spoken only of consultation, and have not even engaged in that in a meaningful way. They looked a little surprised by this information, and said they would get back to us about it at the next meeting.

ASLEF rightly insisted that their statement at the previous meeting that the station job cuts do affect train staff should be recorded in the minutes, as it had not been.

Management responded to trade union points made at the last meeting as follows:

• Will LU suspend the drafting of new rosters while talks continue?
• Answer: No.

• How much money did LU spend on Valuing Time?
• Answer: We can't answer that.

• LU should open its books to allow the unions to scrutinise its finances and identify alternative cost savings.
• Answer: No. Some LU financial information is a matter of public record, but a lot of it is commerically sensitive or legally privileged.
• Follow-up question: RMT asked (again) for the costs of directors' salaries and bonuses, and of awards, settlements and legal fees from Employment Tribunal claims.

• Will LU suspend its plans to scrap rostered TeamTalk for drivers and thus cut drivers' jobs?
• Answer: This has been discussed at an ad hoc Directors' meeting - although there was then considerable confusion as to whether it had been or not.

• Will voluntary severance be available to all grades?
• No. It will be targeted at certain grades only (details to follow)

• What discussions has LU held with passenger groups and other 'stakeholders'?
• Answer: We wrote to a large number of stakeholder organisations and are receiving feedback.
• Follow-up question: RMT asked for a list of the stakeholder organisations written to, and copies of responses received.
• Answer: Yes, we will give the unions the list. But no, we won't give the unions all the replies, as some may be submitted in confidence.

• What are LU's plans for medically-restricted staff whose jobs are scrapped?
• Answer: LU can not provide an answer as yet.

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And here are the questions that the unions asked this week, and which LU will answer (or not) next week ...

• What is the target number for voluntary severance
• What is the budget for VS payments?
• What are the terms for VS?
• What will LU do to prevent managers who take VS returning as consultants?
• Can you assure us that there will not be an increase in discipline to get rid of staff?
• Can you give us an assurance that there will be no job cuts in engineering and fleet maintenance?

Check back to this website next week for answers (or not).

And one more ...

• What is the timescale for your proposed job cuts?
• LU answered this one straight away: "We want to move as quickly as possible."