LU STRIKES CALLED

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january 2016 :: RMTnews 5 London Underground staff from three unions are to stage three 24-hour strikes and other industrial action over pay, plans for Night Tubes and proposed job cuts but talks are ongoing as RMT News went to press. Currently RMT, Aslef and Unite union members will start industrial action on the evenings of January 26, February 15 and February 17. RMT agreed a wide ranging programme of industrial action across London Underground grades in two separate disputes over pay, Night Tube and the plans to bulldoze through massive cuts to station staffing numbers early next month. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that members were furious at the bodged Night Tube plans and the fact that they have been tied in with a pay deal that has left members dangling on a string and out of pocket since April last year. “RMT supports the principle of a properly worked out Night Tube service introduced through agreement with the unions but the abject failure to work through the detail has led to a comprehensive breakdown in the negotiations and has forced us to name a programme of further industrial action. “This whole situation could have been avoided if London Underground, under direction from the Mayor, had dealt with the Night Tube professionally from the off instead of resorting to ultimatums and imposition. “RMT has fought for more jobs on the Underground to cope with the added pressures of Night Tube but those jobs must be within the framework of the existing tube operations and must offer career opportunities to the Underground’s existing staff, including existing drivers who may choose to take up the offer of reducing their hours. “On the station staffing crisis it is absolutely crazy to be bulldozing through and imposing new rosters linked to the axing of over 800 safety- critical jobs from early next month when there is a heightened security status and when services are dangerously overcrowded across the network. The current plans also rip up previous agreements to protect staff caught in the middle of this reorganisation. “The station staff are the eyes and ears of the Underground and hacking back their numbers represents a lethal gamble with safety that RMT will continue to fight against,” he said. T ube Lines staff are being balloted for strike action and action short of a strike after reps overwhelmingly rejected the latest pay and Night Tube offer which mirrors the rejected proposals from London Underground to its workforce. Tube Lines is a wholly owned subsidiary of London Underground and was taken in-house in the wake of the tube privatisation fiasco. RMT has nearly 1,300 members looking after maintenance and upgrade works on the Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee Lines. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that Tube Lines members had been offered the same deal on pay and Night Tube as their London Underground colleagues and reps had clearly rejected it. “RMT has made it clear that with growing numbers of tube users, and planned expansions of the service, the staff in all grades who are expected to keep the railway running must be respected and their efforts properly rewarded,” he said. Tube staff from three unions to take industrial action over pay, Night Tube and job cuts LU STRIKES CALLED TUBE LINES STAFF BALLOTED FOR STRIKE ACTION