METRONET AGAINST FORCED TRANSFERS SUSPENDED

www.rmt.org.uk :: april 2007 :: RMTnews 7 M ore than 2,000 Metronet Tube maintenance staff suspended a seven-day overtime ban this month against the forced transfer of staff to other companies, which include Bombardier, Balfour Beatty, WS Atkins and EDF. However, RMT warned that if the company failed to resolve the dispute strike days would follow. “There was significant movement from the company during talks which may form the basis of an agreement,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said. RMT members at the private consortium overwhelmingly backed industrial action after the company refused to withdraw plans to transfer staff despite agreeing a year ago that this would not happen. “This dispute is about honouring agreements and defending our members’ pay, conditions and resisting dangerous fragmentation that our members already have too much bitter experience of,” Bob said. OUTSOURCING The union also demanded that Metronet must not be allowed to scale down Tube renewals to claw back up to £750 million in cost over-runs. After the PPP arbiter indicated that over-run costs would have to be met by Metronet, RMT warned that the consortium would seek to cut costs by slashing refurbishment projects and outsourcing work on the cheap. Bob said that taxpayers should not foot the bill for such failings and the consortium should not be allowed to skimp on the work it is supposed to deliver. "Metronet has already indicated that if it cannot squeeze more cash out of the public it will cut back on station renewals and is looking to fragment the network even further by outsourcing contracts, undermining safety even more. "Failure and fragmentation are built into the very fabric of the PPP contracts, and the solution is to bring the work back in-house," Bob said. S ecret plans to remove guards from busy commuter trains across London just before the 2012 Olympics will be fought “all the way”, RMT has pledged. Privateers bidding to run the ‘London Rail Concession’ from 2010 have been told by Transport for London that driver-only trains could be operated on the North London and West London lines from December 2011. Trains on both lines are currently guarded. The invitation to tender, obtained by RMT under freedom of information law, tells bidders: “TfL anticipates the implementation of a system that will support DOO [driver- only operation] operations on the NLL and WLL by December 2011,” and adds: “Bidders can set out proposals to broaden the scope of DOO or bring forward its implementation”. TfL intends that the proposed new franchise will include the privatised operations of the East London Line when it re-opens after extension in 2010 – the first privatisation of a London Underground line. “It will be bad enough if the privateers get their hands on the East London Line, but it beggars belief that they will be given a free hand to remove nearly 100 guards from busy commuter trains just in time for the Olympics,” general secretary Bob Crow said. He said that the North and West London lines are heavily overcrowded at the best of times, and removing a key safety-critical member of train crew is the opposite of what is needed. “Just about everyone who uses and works on the railways agrees that there is a pressing need for more staff on stations and trains, for security and safety reasons. “TfL should be planning the return of guards on London Underground and everywhere else they have been removed, not undermining safety even further by taking away those that remain,” he said. METRONET ACTION SUSPENDED AFTER PROGRESS AGAINST FORCED TRANSFERS RMT TO FIGHT TFL PLAN TO REMOVE TRAIN GUARDS