Every Job Matters - Defending London Underground Jobs

With strike action solid this morning, tube union RMT reminded Mayor Boris Johnson of his repeated promises not to close tube ticket offices – broken promises that run right to the heart of the dispute.

Asked last year about his plans to close a number of ticket offices across London, Boris Johnson's spokesperson said:

"This Mayor takes his promis es to Londoners extremely seriously. Every station that has a ticket office will continue to have one.”

RMT press briefing – the tube dispute in numbers

3%: The number of tickets the Mayor claims are sold by ticket offices.

23%: Total amount of ticket transactions ticket offices actually have responsibility for.

7.577 Million: The total transactions at ticket offices in 2013, an increase on the 7.418 million from 2012.

14% Projected increase in passenger numbers over the next five years.

17% Cut in the number of frontline station staff proposed by the Mayor.

Responding to Boris Johnson’s attack on trade unions this morning, RMT acting general secretary Mick Cash said:

“From Boris Johnson’s wholesale assault on the trade unions this morning it is crystal clear that he has sought to engineer and provoke a dispute on London Underground, by bulldozing through his cuts and closures programme, in order to use Londoners as pawns in his personal crusade for the leadership of the Tory Party.

In this 'strike special' edition:

• Striking back because Every Job Matters
• Myth & Fact
• TUC Supports our strike
• Stations today, drivers tomorrow?
• Think you can't afford to strike?

Tube strike action on as London Underground reject RMT proposals
Tube strike action starting this evening, over the closure of ticket office and the axing of safety-critical jobs, is on after London Underground management rejected a series of proposals from RMT negotiators that could have created the grounds for a suspension.
At talks convened through ACAS this morning, RMT set out a whole series of grounds which would have allowed progress to be made, the whole package was rejected out of hand by the London Underground management.

RMT Acting General Secretary Mick Cash said:

London Underground Managing Director Mike Brown said on the BBC News yesterday (25 April) evening that RMT had not made any constructive alternative proposals to its job cuts and ticket office closures. We have - LUL even wrote to John Leach acknowledging RMT's proposals and replying to them in detail! Here's the proof that Mike Brown lied.

Dear Bakerloo branch member,

STRIKE ON LU – 29th and 30th of April – JOIN THE PICKETS!

BRANCH MEETING – 15:00 hours Monday 12th of May – Nominate RMT General Secretary

MARCH FOR BOB – IINTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY -THURSDAY IST MAY

STRIKE ON LU – 29th and 30th of April – JOIN THE PICKETS

A misleading bulletin has been sent out which says that all supervisors will get CSM jobs.

Here is the RMT's breakdown of what is actually on offer and how it will affect each grade.

SS1/SS2
Guaranteed a CSM position but location and CSM grading (1 or 2) decided by LU on assessment.

SSMF/SS3
- Guaranteed CSS post but while most SSMF/SS3s work in outer zones the CSS jobs will be mainly in Zone 1.