NO TORY CUTS UNDER A LABOUR MAYOR

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2019 :: RMTnews 7 RMT took the fight over tube cuts and privatisation direct to the front door of London Mayor Sadiq Khan at City Hall in a protest last month. The union has halted a ballot of nearly 2,000 LU staff to look at widening the numbers and grades involved after the company revealed that the scale of cuts planned under the “transformation programme” had been ramped up and will hit home even harder than had been initially expected. The protest demanded “No Tory Cuts Under A Labour Mayor” and shone a spotlight on planned privatisation and job cuts being cooked up by tube bosses under the cloak of their "Transformation Programme". RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that staff across London Underground were furious at the attempts to smuggle in a creeping programme of cuts and privatisation under the cloak of the Transformation Programme under the watch of London Labour Mayor iSadiq Khan. "RMT will not stand back while jobs and safety are carved up and services like waste collection are knocked out to the cheapest bidder,” he said. The Mayor’s transport officials have admitted that they have given up on restoring funding to the Tube despite the cuts being labelled “insane” by Transport for London boss Mike Brown. The revelation buried away in notes of a discussion with passenger watchdog London Travel Watch quotes the Mayor’s top transport official as saying: “Mr Brown remarked that the year had been the first financial year where their operating subsidy from the Government had been reduced from ‘£700 million to zero’. He commented that it was an ‘insane situation’ where passengers using public transport were subsidising the road maintenance of London. Mr Brown added, ‘it is nuts and I say it everywhere I go.’ A member asked how London TravelWatch could help to highlight this ‘daft situation’. Mr Brown replied that on the first point, he would happily provide a response as to how London TravelWatch could help put TfL’s case forward for the return of their operational subsidy from the government.” Then, however at a subsequent meeting of the London Travelwatch Board it was reported that: “TfL has now decided to abandon trying to have this subsidy returned to them and is now instead asking the Treasury to keep business rates that have been allocated to the Mayor, which is due to expire in 2020/2021.” MPs also tabled a motion calling for the London Underground subsidy to be reinstated and for Transport for London to: “protect safety and service by not cutting staffing, conditions, maintenance and engineering and meeting any funding shortfall through other mechanisms including ending profiteering on outsourced functions such as cleaning by bringing this work in house, borrowing and using reserves. Mick Cash said said that the situation was a dangerous failure to stand up for London which is leading to unsafe cuts to staffing, maintenance and engineering. “In contrast MPs are right to call for the Tube’s grant to be reinstated and they are right to warn of the dangers of making cuts to our network. “We are demanding that the Mayor publicly and vigorously campaigns for Tube funding to be reinserted and for a Labour Mayor to refuse to carry out Tory cuts to the Tube,” he said. The union also slammed London Underground bosses for repeatedly ignoring warnings about the surge in crime on the tube as new figures issued today show that thefts on the network have risen by 80 per cent in the past three years. The shocking new BTP figures come after other statistics have pointed to increasing assaults and sexually and racially motivated violence across London Underground and the wider transport system. NO TORY CUTS UNDER A LABOUR MAYOR MPs call for Mayor to take action to protect London Underground safety