MPS BACK FIGHT AGAINST TUBE JOB CUTS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january 2014 :: RMTnews 7 M Ps from RMT’s parliamentary group have backed the fight against proposals to close ticket offices by tabling questions in the House of Commons, putting down early day motions and pressing for an urgent parliamentary debate. An RMT survey of tube users has also demonstrated overwhelming public opposition to the ticket office closures. RMT group member Diane Abbott MP raised the issue in heated exchanges at Prime Ministers Questions. Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn tabled an early day motion 787 calling on the London Mayor to reconsider his proposals and keep the ticket offices open. The EDM raised concerns about proposals to close all London Underground ticket offices and massively increase reliance on ticket machines. “This will not only result in the loss of almost a thousand front-line station staff but will also impact on the service provided to passengers. “Ticket machines are not able to provide passengers with full advice and assistance which may result in passengers enduring more expensive and difficult journeys. “Disabled and older people could be disadvantaged when trying to use ticket machines and there will be an increased threat to the safety and security of vulnerable groups such as women travelling at night,” it said. Members are urged to contact their MP and ask them to sign the motion by going to the RMT campaign web page. R MT is balloting members on the SERCO Docklands Light Railway for both strike action and action short of a strike following a total breakdown in industrial relations between the union and the employer. The issues at the heart of the dispute include stalling on pay talks, abuse of disciplinary and attendance procedures and the use of agency and contract staff to undermine jobs and conditions. DLR cleaners working on the Carlisle contract are also being balloted as the company is refusing to honour its promised timetable for incremental pay increases to the London Living Wage. The union is also balloting Transport for London members over plans to make future pay rises dependant on ‘performance’ and freezing pensionable pay at current levels. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the union had no option but to ballot over attacks on pay an pensions “RMT will not tolerate the cavalier abuse of procedures, agreements, pensions and pay,” he said. RMT is also balloting all LUL members over plans to shut down all ticket offices and scraping nearly 1,000 jobs including the removal station supervisors at some stations. The union is urging a Yes vote in all ballots and the results will be announced later this month. R MT has slammed a plan unveiled by Transport for London which would replace nearly a thousand safety-critical tube station staff jobs with an army of unpaid volunteers. A company circular said: “To help us serve customers across our entire transport network, we need as many TfL ambassadors as possible to enable us to provide support when it is needed”. This is a blatant admission that the thousand threatened permanent staff jobs, held by skilled and experienced personnel, are to be replaced with unpaid and poorly trained volunteers in a deeply cynical move directly associated with the current dispute over the job cuts plans. The volunteers would not be subject to anything like the training, safety-briefing and direct management control of the permanent tube staff and as a non-contracted, scab workforce would be able to come and go as they please, plunging the system into total chaos. The volunteer plan has clearly been cooked up as part of plans to bulldoze through the cuts programme which has sparked anger across the entire tube workforce as they are balloted for strike action over the job and ticket office cuts and closures. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that it was clear that London Underground had been working behind the scenes on a secret plan to replace nearly a thousand skilled, experienced and safety-critical tube staff with a scab army of unpaid and under-trained volunteers who would gradually be introduced into every possible corner of the tube network. “It is outrageous that on the one hand TfL is admitting in their circular that they need more visible, station staff while on the other they are axing those same posts and seeking to fill them for free with volunteer “ambassadors”. “Union members across the tube system will be appalled to find that those volunteers are now being bracketed as “staff” when they are nothing of the kind. “RMT is prepared to fight for jobs, services and safety and we demand that these outrageous proposals be withdrawn immediately and the recruitment stand at LU HQ be shut down,” he said. RMT SLAMS PLANS TO REPLACE TUBE STAFF WITH VOLUNTEERS MPS BACK FIGHT AGAINST TUBE JOB CUTS DOCKLANDS LIGHT RAILWAY/TFL BALLOTS