Includes London Underground staff of all grades on the Bakerloo Line, plus the Special Requirements Team (SRT) and hotel staff. Branch meetings are held at The Royal Exchange PH, 26 Sale Place, Paddington, W2. (map)
Details here.
RMT to ballot Bakerloo train drivers to defend workmate
Drivers on the Bakerloo Line were shocked when Kevin Dobinson was summarily dismissed on May 28th.
Circular No. IR/222/09
RMT is to ballot all Bakerloo Line Drivers for both strike action and industrial action short of a strike in support of a dismissed colleague, Kevin Dobinson. Ballot papers will dispatched direct to members’ homes on 30th July 2009 with the closing date for returns being Wednesday 12th August 2009.
It seem that our Train Operator members on the Bakerloo are furious at Kevin’s dismissal and over 160 of them have signed a petition telling management exactly that. Kevin was sacked for a SPAD that he owned up to. It was an aggravated SPAD largely caused by Kevin being preoccupied with personal problems. Furthermore it was the sort of incident that had occurred before on the Underground yet other people hadn’t been sacked.
As well as the attack on Core Station Supervisor training outlined here, the following issues were also discussed at Monday's Joint Working Party about the ex-Silverlink stations:
* Staff who failed the Station Supervisor application have been allowed to reapply - 31 of the 34 have done so. The applicants will have 'enhanced coaching'. The three parts of the application - written test, role play and interview - will have a full day each, with coaching prior to assessment.
London Underground management are trying to whittle away the core roles of a Station Supervisor by creating a part-qualified Supervisor grade on the ex-Silverlink stations. RMT believes that this is both unfair on the staff who will take up these Supervisor jobs and a threat to the Station Supervisor grade in general. We are insisting that all Station Supervisor grades must continue to receive the full core Supervisor training and not be de-skilled.
Bakerloo driver Kevin Dobinson remains sacked following the result of an Appeal, heard by Trains Performance Manager, Rob Smith. As a result there will be an emergency Branch meeting on July 13th in Unity House at 16:00 hours. Download the attached poster for notice boards.
Here are some recent pay settlements, which may help put London Underground's and TfL's current offers in perspective:
Press release...
John McDonnell MP, TUCG Convenor said:
"This dispute demonstrates the anger many workers feel when employers refuse to negotiate or seek arbitration"
"The Trade Union Coordinating Group calls upon the employers to enter into negotiations and calls upon the government to repeal the anti trade union laws which only serve to exacerbate the current poor industrial relations climate."
Bob Crow, General Secretary, RMT said:
SOLIDARITY!
RMT, ASLEF, TSSA members defy the bosses
Last Wednesday and Thursday
RMT members caused two days of hell in London. The BBC and the newspapers described the two days of strike action as “chaos”. Only London Underground and Boris Johnson tried to claim this was “service as usual”. But they are liars.
A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE GENERAL SECRETARY
Dear Colleague,
Here are some useful facts. Below is the actual number of trains run (bold) on all lines during the strike against the total each line would normally run.
On a normal day 522 trains are run across the combine. Taken as a percentage, and at mid peak times (0900 and 1800) the best 'service' they ran amounted to 28% on Thursday (0900). However, take away the Northern and Jubilee Lines the best 'service' they could run across the combine was 17% for Wednesday and 19% for Thursday.