Health and safety

The RMT General Grades Committee has agreed to ballot for action short of strike action driver members on the Bakerloo and Central Lines for a safe procedure for detraining passengers.

This follows a joint meeting of RMT and ASLEF members held on Monday 22nd of October to discuss the detrainment procedure on the Bakerloo Line. The meeting was addressed by RMT Regional Organiser Brian Whitehead and ASLEF executive member Terry Wilkinson.

You can sign this very important petition here.

From General Secretary Bob Crow
Despite the successful efforts of the Union and the RMT Parliamentary Group in blocking the government’s previous attack on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, as suspected, the Tory millionaires and Lib Dem lickspittles have re-submitted plans to cut a quarter - £50 000 000 - from the CICS budget.

As the London Cab Trade attempts to recover from the economic disaster of the Olympics caused by the scaremongering publicity from TfL - since admitted and regretted by the Mayor of London - and the decision by TfL to exclude us from the Games lane, we were again dismayed when TfL suspended the licences of over 300 new Taxi’s following a steering fault that could have endangered the lives of Driver and passenger alike.

The RMT therefore demand the following:

• The IMMEDIATE SUSPENSION OF THE 15 YEAR RULE to ensure that those owners can continue to work so that the effect of the TX4 ‘interruption to the supply chain’ is mitigated and that the Cab fleet can cope with demand coming up to the Peak period.

As the largest trade union on London Underground, and the only union representing all grades on London Underground, RMT deeply regrets that no action has been taken following the GLA investigation into the state of the Tube.

In particular, RMT is deeply concerned that following the Union’s active engagement in the investigation, and the subsequent good faith with which we engaged the Olympics, that it now appears that our members are faced with an unprecedented assault.

Continue reading or download the original document attached below

We note the views expressed by our representatives at our meeting on 8 October, and reaffirm the following industrial action, instructing our Victoria line driver members to:

1. NOT to recognise the imposed sensitive edge door procedure and to work the previous safer instruction. i.e. go back to the carriage concerned and physically check the cause of activation.
2. NOT to sign for the new Defective In Service Instruction (D.I.S.I.) handbook and not to recognise this as a condition of service and to work to the previous D.I.S.I. book.
   

We note the views expressed by our representatives held on Monday 8 October.

We therefore reaffirm our industrial action, and instruct the General Secretary to ensure:

1. a renewed effort to promote and explain the action to drivers.
2. regular updates from reps on developments.
3. an up-to-date list of platforms with disputed categorisation is produced.
4. our stations representatives produce publicity material for station staff, especially supervisors, on this issue and the union’s stance on it.

Any developments to be placed in front of us.

TUBE UNION RMT today praised the intervention of a Bakerloo Line tube driver which prevented a potential tragedy involving a 12 year old boy

The incident took place on Monday at 3.30 pm. The 12 year old boy was over-carried (on board the train after its final passenger stop) into the Queens Park sidings. Previously these trains used to be physically checked that they were empty prior to going into the sidings. RMT objected to the ending of detraining and said at the time that getting rid of detrainment staff was unsafe.

Yesterday we reported the story of a 12 year old boy who had been taken into the sidings on the Bakerloo Line onboard an out of service train. The boy then climbed out between carriages into an area with live tracks and moving trains.

The boy managed to "shimmy up and over the ‘inner car barriers’ and out of the train. He could have killed himself as his means of exit from the train was directly going onto the live positive rail. He got out of the train into an area of 4 live running roads; it was only the actions of the driver that prevented a fatality."

We note the correspondence from London Underground, calling a meeting to discuss the process for conducting the review of the machineries. We instruct the General Secretary to ensure that the appropriate officer and representatives attend this meeting, and to provide them with copies of previous decisions on this issue.

We note that while this review was originally of the industrial relations and health & safety machineries, the correspondence from LUL now suggests that it covers other areas