LUL Trains

We note the report of a meeting that took place yesterday with two Directors of London Underground Ltd. It appears that this meeting did not take place in line with our previous decision of 25 October 2012, and instruct the General Secretary to obtain an explanation of this and to place it in front of us.

We note that in the meeting, LUL stated that:

• there will be no driverless trains in the near future
• the Bakerloo line upgrade due in 2020 as yet has no agreed funding
• it anticipates employing more station staff as the service frequency increases
  

That we note the result of ballot for strike action is:-

Total votes cast - 5

Number voting “Yes” - 4

Number voting “No” - 1

That we note the result of ballot for action short of strike action is:-

Total votes cast 5

Number voting “Yes” - 5

Number voting “No” - 0

We congratulate our members for taking this firm stance against the development of ‘driverless trains’, and note that London Underground Ltd states that it is not proceeding with these tests.

Following the de-recognition of trains side rep Jason Moriarty the RMT has once again had fantastic success. Before the de recognition there was only one RMT train rep position for the east end of the Jubilee line, now there is TWO!

We now have

• 1 Rep position at North Greenwich AND 1 Rep position at Stratford
• 1 rep + 1 rep = 2 reps

There is an increase of RMT Train IR rep numbers from 33 to 34.

For some time now RMT Trains Health & Safety Council (THSC) representatives have been seeking a process for the retention of manual handling / operation skills on automatic lines. With more lines moving to automatic operation it is vital that Train Operators retain their manual handling skills. These skills will be required during degraded working, or be it problems with your train, signalling or some other factor and also form part of your CMS.

At the London Transport Regional council on 25 Oct the following emergency resolution from Jubilee South branch was put before the Region:

Right to elect workplace representatives
This branch is disgusted with the attacks being made by management and the devious methods they are using to try not to recognize our rep for Stratford/North Greenwich depots.

Jason Moriarty, elected for this position by members of the branch, has refused to be recognized by LUL despite him previously being the rep and having full recognition.

“No plans in relation to preparing for the introduction of driverless train on London Underground” - Tube Lines

We note the correspondence from Tube Lines, stating that it has “no plans in relation to preparing for the introduction of driverless train on London Underground” and that “This is a matter for London Underground to determine”. We instruct the General Secretary to continue to press Tube Lines for information concerning its involvement in developing technology that may facilitate driverless trains or a reduction in the driver’s role.

We note the report from our Regional Organiser, that in practice, our level 2 and tier 2 reps for stations and revenue control (10 reps) and trains (6 reps) have full-time release; we note that additionally, there is a full-time-release representative for Upgrades for trains and for service control. In all other functions – engineering, fleet, MATS, and service control – level 2 and tier 2 representatives are released on an “as and when basis” which can amount to nearly full-time release in practice in some, but not all, cases.

We note the correspondence from London Underground Ltd, and instruct the General Secretary to arrange for the appropriate officer(s) and representative(s) to attend the meeting suggested by LUL.

We further instruct the General Secretary to draft a list of issues and demands that we will raise at this meeting, and to place these in front of the GGC in advance of the meeting.

Any developments to be placed in front of us.

London Transport Regional Council, branches and representatives to be advised.

The RMT General Grades Committee has agreed to ballot for action short of strike action driver members on the Bakerloo and Central Lines for a safe procedure for detraining passengers.

This follows a joint meeting of RMT and ASLEF members held on Monday 22nd of October to discuss the detrainment procedure on the Bakerloo Line. The meeting was addressed by RMT Regional Organiser Brian Whitehead and ASLEF executive member Terry Wilkinson.

A Directors meeting took place on Wednesday 17th of October to discuss London Underground procedures following the near fatality of a 12 year old boy. Management stated that they were not prepared to ensure that trains were manually detrained prior to going into the sidings at Queens Park. They said that they would wait for the outcome of an Inquiry that is taking place but that will not report for months.