LUL Trains

From RMT Senior Assistant General Secretary Mick Cash

The following resolution has been received from London Transport Regional Council:

“This Regional Council condemns the arrest by BTP of Mark Harding, the RMT Branch Secretary of Hammersmith & City Branch. Mark was arrested despite only carrying out legitimate trade union activities whilst on the picket line outside his place of work.

We note the resolution from the London Transport Regional Council and wholeheartedly agree that the arrest by BTP of Mark Harding, the RMT Branch Secretary of Hammersmith & City Branch was a travesty of civil of liberties. Bro Harding was arrested despite only carrying out legitimate trade union activities whilst on the picket line outside his place of work. We agree that his detention for nearly 13 hours and the draconian bail conditions imposed were extreme to say the least.

Despite agreements reached with London Underground and your union just over a year ago at Directors level regarding the implementation of Auto Not Permitted (ANP) while P-Way staff or trespassers were on the track, LU have decided to remove this facility without meaningful consultation with your union and without the participation of local safety representatives in the workplace risk assessments around this.

This General Grades Committee is outraged at London Underground’s ‘employee bulletin’, dated 19 February 2014, announcing the imminent commissioning of driverless/cabless trains for the Piccadilly, Bakerloo, Central and Waterloo & City Lines.

Handling confidential personal information in line with the Data Protection Act:

1. Train operators should telephone the booking-on point on the first day / shift of sickness where possible (reference to 2.1 of LUL AAW Procedure).
2. The train operator will state that they are reporting sick and, if possible, give an approximate timescale for resumption of duty.
   

London Underground's 'Director of Strategy & Service Development' has sent out an internal bulletin to all tube workers detailing a plan for new trains that "will have the capability to be operated with, or without, a train operator at the front of the train." London Underground will pay £3 billion for this new fleet of trains which they plan to introduce from 2020 and "by the end of the 2030s, ultimately be rolled out across the Piccadilly, Bakerloo, Central and Waterloo & City Lines."

In the February 2014 edition of Jubilee South Train Drivers Newsletter:

• Every Job Matters - What Now?
• Defend Mark Harding
• North Greenwich Improvements
• Facilities Watch
• Success!
• Coming Up
• Open to scrutiny
• Read all about it

The fifth issue of 'Fit for the Fightback: Trains' is now available. In this issue is an article explaining what our recent success means and a warning that it is only a short term success forcing LUL to begin talking with us properly. There is also an article on RMT activist Mark Harding, who was arrested on the picket line last week.

This is the fifth of our special trains 'Every Job Matters' dispute newsletters produced in the past month, aimed at keeping drivers up to date with the latest dispute news.

The 4th issue of 'Fit for the Future: Trains' was produced prior to the second planned 'Every Job Matters' industrial action was suspended. It has an article on the success of our initial strike - which since publication is a view that has been proven correct. There is also an article about Mark Harding, an RMT activist arrested on the picket line, and several picket line photographs.