STAFF OUR STATIONS

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: april 2010 :: RMTnews 19 RMT is balloting members working for London Underground for strike action and action short of a strike after bosses failed to withdraw the threat of axing 800 staff, closing ticket offices and undermining public and staff safety. The ballots comes as vacancies are left unfilled, and staff shortages hit home, the prime terrorist target of Heathrow Terminal Five on the Piccadilly Line was left unstaffed last month with the one member of crew due to be on duty pulled away to a briefing session with LU managers. RMT also launched the Staff Our Stations campaign with John McDonnell MP after the union revealed concrete evidence that the company was already leaving stations unstaffed, or with just one member of staff, without any consultation. “That is a scandalous dereliction of duty and it is only a matter of time now before TfL and Boris Johnson have a tragedy on their hands as a result of their cavalier disregard for public safety. During his election campaign, London Mayor Boris Johnson pledged to "put the commuter first…by halting the proposed Tube ticket office closures, and ensuring there is always a manned ticket office at every station". And during his election campaign he signed a petition opposing ticket-office closures and calling for those already closed to be re-opened. In his election manifesto, said: "I will also defend local ticket offices... I will stop the planned ticket office closures, and focus on increasing the number of Oyster outlets in outer London so local people have greater access to Oyster". The Tube Lines cuts are bound up with the £1.7 billion funding row with the Mayor and TfL and jobs, and the essential works on Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee Lines, must not be written off as collateral damage in a political war over the failed tube privatisation experiment. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the union would not sit idly by while the Mayor, his transport officials and Tube Line’s drive down tube staffing levels to dangerously low levels. “We gave LU and Tube Lines an opportunity to pull back from these cuts but they have decided to plough on leaving us with no option but to organise ballots,” he said. For Tube users the cuts will means fewer visible staff on stations, less security and a less safe transport network, longer queues and more difficulty finding help in an emergency. For Tube staff it would mean more lone working, increased workload, more stress and greater risk of assault. UNION BUSTING RMT has released a leaked internal document from London Underground maintenance containing a secret strategy for bulldozing through the cuts and taking on their workforce. The leaked document, from an LU maintenance “Strategic Planning and Performance Day” seminar talks in derogatory terms of an “ageing and entrenched workforce” and the need for wholesale staffing reductions and how “recession helps, now is time to make changes”. Alongside the undermining of health and safety, the document advises “getting in position to positively take on a strike”. Amid the threat of outsourcing maintenance, in a return to the failed Private Public Partnership, the management agenda also involves ignoring consultation procedures with the union and “planning for a strike and preparing people for it”. Bob Crow said that Tube bosses were clearly planning to try and break the strength of the organisation that can stop their attacks on jobs and safety – RMT. “It is a scandal that London Underground is wasting time on conspiracies aimed at breaking RMT while stations are being left dangerously understaffed and safety standards are under threat right across the Network,” he said. YOU can help stop these dangerous cuts WHAT YOU CAN DO • Fill in the RMT postcard available from your branch secretary and return it by FREEPOST – we will pass the cards directly to the Mayor • Write to London Mayor Boris Johnson directly at mayor@london.gov.uk, or at City Hall, 110 The Queens Walk, London, SE1 2AA asking him to honour his election pledges • Write to your MP asking him or her to defend Tube safety and oppose job cuts. • Ask your local councillors to tell the Mayor that these staff cuts are unacceptable. • Check for campaign updates at www.rmt.org.uk. RMT members working on London Underground are being balloted for strike action to stop the planned 800 job cuts on the Tube STAFF OUR STATIONS