Local trains health and safety rep, Gary Fitzpatrick, was recently deducted a day’s pay in a case which demonstrates the warped priorities of our management at the moment. Safety continues to be ignored in favour of keeping the service running at all costs, and union reps continue to be harassed and bullied for trying to protect their members.
Safety ignored after lift failure
By a majority of 3 to 1 on a high turnout, RMT drivers on the Victoria line have voted for strike action and action short of a strike against local management’s attempt to impose 5-rounder duties on the line. The unions had an agreement with the company that there would be no more than four rounders in any duty because of the hot and noisy conditions on the line and the detrimental effect on morale that these turns
Readers will remember that in the May edition of Monthly News we reported on a serious breach of safety at Blackhorse Road when the station was left open at the insistence of a DSM despite both escalators being out of action and contrary to the Congestion Control Evacuation Plan (CCEP). Alarmingly, the CCEP was broken again recently, this time at Tottenham Hale.
Click on the link to download the September issue of Monthly News.
RMT CLEANERS working on the Eurostar contract for the Carlisle Group at St Pancras International are rock solid this morning in their support for a 48 hour strike which started at 21.59 hours last night.
The cleaners - who are fighting a pay freeze, a threat of redundancies, the introduction of Orwellian finger-printing machines and the victimisation of a union rep – have mounted a noisy mass picket at St Pancras International this morning.
Click '1 attachment' / file name to download our new Service Control Newsletter.
Circular No. IR.275/09: RATES OF PAY & CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2009, REDUNDANCIES AND BREACH OF AGREEMENTS - LUL and TfL
At a meeting of the LUL Company Council last week, the company’s pay offer was further discussed. There was no further movement by the employer and so their offer still stands as follows:
Year 1: 1.5% increase from 1st April 2009 Year 2: February 2010 RPI + 0.5% or 0.5% whichever is the greater from 1st April 2010
The picket will be between St Pancras and Kings Cross, about 100 yards down from Euston Rd. The strike is for shifts that book on between21:59 hours on Thursday 17th September 2009 and 21:59 on Saturday 19th September 2009.
The main book-on times are 08.00 and 14.00, so a good time to be there is Friday 7.30 am and 13.30 and the same on Saturday. Shift start times are 2200; 0600; 0800; 1400; 1530 so there should be pickets in place before those times, if not all day.
Carlisle gives Cleaners 14.3% more! (But only to scabs!)
22p. That's what London Underground's pay offer is worth to a Customer Services Assistant in year 2. The new issue of 'RMT London Calling' newsletter spells out the details of how miserly LUL's and TfL's pay offers are, and how poorly they compare to rises enjoyed by company directors and even by other workers.
There are also reports from Docklands Light Railway, the Woolwich ferry, the Victoria line 'five-rounders' dispute, and Boris Johnson's latest broken promise - on snow day pay.
Click '1 attachment' / file name to download it. Please print and distribute around London Transport workplaces.
Bakerloo line drivers were subject to what can only be described as keystone cops style of management during the first day of last weekend’s shutdown. Seemingly making it up on the hoof, management instructed drivers to keep trains in service even when failing the trip cock tester. Apparently the requirement for a second person in the cab was sufficient to run a safe railway. This goes against all the basic principles we are taught when joining LUL! Week 1 Day 1 we are told safety is paramount.