TfL ambassadors - don't take bribes to undermine station staff fight for jobs 

So the big TfL/London Underground lie is exposed for the sham that it is. Tube workers now know that money is not the issue; there's loads of it. White collar TfL staff, many of whose jobs are already under threat as a result of Tory government cuts and the new Mayor's spending review, are being bribed in an attempt to undermine LU station staff's industrial action. 

The overtime ban has begun to bite and stations are now closing as the new, truly threadbare staffing levels become unworkable. This is a direct consequence of LU axing nearly 1000 station jobs, the laughably named 'Fit For The Future'. TfL has responded by trying to entice its office and support staff to work on stations at enhanced rates of pay, offering £160 for early turns, £200 for late turns and £250 for night/weekend turns. Meanwhile, all over TfL jobs are being slashed, vacancies go unfilled, maternity/paternity leave goes uncovered, staff can't take up secondments cos their manager won't/can't release them, etc, etc.  

The RMT's industrial action on stations was launched to reinstate adequate, safe staffing levels, and to win staffing levels that might allow reasonable work/life balance (you know, a bit of time with the kids, your other half, your mates; maybe a bit of time to have a sleep, to relax, like). The TSSA union on stations has now voted to likewise ban overtime working. The ban is also the first step to win a single CSA grade, all trained and paid to the same level and an an end to arbitrary moves of location, like people moved from one end of a line to the other. 

TfL grandly calls the people it wants to undermine the overtime ban 'ambassadors', a laughable title for someone who, in TfL's view, is utterly disposable in the long term. The real ambassadors on the Tube are the CSA's who leave home at 3am to open up London's stations; the real ambassadors are the staff who do seven nights every 28 day rotation, and would love £250 per night turn. There's no £160 per early turn for our CSA's, and certainly no £200 per late turn for our staff who get home as the sun rises. There are no weekend enhancements either. None. TfL's bribes are a slap in the face to loyal staff, and are being paid ON TOP OF normal TfL salaries. 

However, this isn't 'frontline staff' versus some sort of dead wood. TfL staff provide essential support services to Tube workers and we don't want those services cutting. TfL staff also manage buses, roads, street lights and a thousand other functions that keep London running. It IS however, us versus them.  The 'us' is all LU/TfL workers, and the 'them' is the people who closed the ticket offices, are privatising the NHS, underfunding our schools, but have limitless money for war and are hellbent on wrecking the rest of the railway - scrapping guards at Southern rail proposing again to break up and flog off Network Rail.

All LU/TfL staff have the same long term interests here. On stations the overtime ban needs strengthening and extending. On TfL, stick that pink hi-vi in the bin, join a trade union, and join the fight for a fully funded, publicly owned transport system that serves all of London.