TUBE UNION RMT confirmed today that electricians and engineers working for contractors Mitie on the TFL contract are to be balloted for strike action and action short of a strike in a dispute over redundancies and unilateral changes to working conditions.

RMT representatives recently met with the company over its proposals for possible redundancies and changes to workers’ terms and condition, changes that RMT says are totally unacceptable. During the negotiations with the company RMT negotiators drafted a proposal which would avoid redundancies, but the company has point-blank refused to consider the perfectly reasonable suggestions and were not even prepared to run a trial of the RMT proposals.

As a result RMT is now in dispute with Mitie on their TFL contract and a ballot for both strike action and action short of a strike will open later this week and conclude on Thursday 9th May

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“In order to resist the attacks by Mitie on RMT’s members jobs working conditions, the union executive has decided ballot Mitie workers on the TFL contract for strike action and industrial action short of a strike . Once again this dispute raises the whole question of the use of outside contractors as a way of undermining jobs and working conditions.

“The union demands that the company agree to the proposed trial of our alternative option and that no changes are made to RMT members current terms and conditions. It is the failure to agree on our perfectly reasonable proposals that has now led us to ballot members for strike action and industrial action short of strike.