LEAKED TUBE STAFFING PLAN RAISES ALARM OVER SAFETY

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: march 2010 :: RMTnews 6 TUBE BOSSES ANNOUNCE MASSIVE JOB CUTS RMT vows to fight 800 job cuts that would turn London Underground into a “muggers paradise” Open six days a week - Mon to Fri - 8am until 6pm, Sat - 9.30am to 4pm e-mail: info@rmt.org.uk Legal helpline: 0800 587 7516 - Seven days a week or call the helpline on freephone 0800 376 3706 Visit www.rmt.org.uk to join online JOIN RMT BRITAIN’S SPECIALIST TRANSPORT UNION Problems at work? Call the helpline (Now with two operators) London Underground has announced plans to slash hundreds of station jobs, threatening staffing levels agreed in the aftermath of the Kings Cross fire in 1987. LU propose to reduce the total number of posts by around 700-800, including 100 manager posts, 450 in ticket offices positions and between 150-200 other station posts in order to save £16 million a year. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that if the job cuts to jobs are bulldozed through by TfL it will turn London’s tube stations into a muggers’ paradise. “RMT will fight to protect passenger and staff security on London Underground and in the event of compulsory redundancies and the undermining of tube safety we will have no hesitation in balloting for action,” he said. A leaked management report titled “Minimum Staffing Levels” revealed that even Victoria, the busiest station on the Tube with 76 million passengers, could see its current 12 staff cut to just two during “degraded” operation. The latest leaked tube management proposals follow on from documents passed to RMT late last year setting out a plan to close ticket offices at 144 stations with the loss of 1200 jobs. The “Minimum Staffing Levels” report would axe posts at sub-surface tube stations with 70 out of 116 stations reduced to a minimum level of just two staff with the remaining 46 stations still to be assessed. Minimum staffing levels were first introduced after the King's Cross fire in 1987 that claimed 31 lives. Legislation was passed in 1989 that introduced stringent and wide-ranging firefighting and precaution measures with an estimated increase in staffing levels by 1,700. RMT recently successfully defended these 1989 Regulations against LU and Transport for London plans to scrap them. The effectiveness of these Regulations couldn't be better proven by the record on LU since the 1987 fire. During the London bombings in July 2005 the measures introduced in 1989 were critical in ensuring that no fires compounded the tragedy. Bob Crow said that despite all the election promises from Boris Johnson that he would not cut back on operational staff and ticket offices the truth is starting to emerge and it is clear that the cash-saving measures under discussion would devastate tube safety. “RMT is committed to fighting these plans and we will continue to alert the travelling public and tube workers to the scale of the attack that is being cooked up for the capital’s transport system in secret meetings,” he said.