TUBE UNION RMT today condemned a threat by London Underground to rip up an existing agreement on job protection as “blatant intimidation and provocation of members who are currently balloting for action over tube safety and the threat to 800 station-based staff posts.”

Gerry Duffy, LU’s Director of Employee Relations, has written to both RMT and TSSA, who are also balloting for action, demanding that the current democratic votes of members be halted or he will tear up negotiated agreements and procedures – paving the way for a jobs massacre across the tube that would impact on all staff and all unions

RMT’s current ballot is over cuts that would slash 800 staff from the stations and platforms and lead to the closure, or partial closure, of nearly 250 ticket offices.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“It is clear to us that with billions being stripped out of the TfL budget to pay off the failed PPP experiment, and to bail out the central Government deficit, that the senior tube management have seized the opportunity to threaten existing agreements which would allow them to unleash a jobs and safety massacre right across London Underground. No job would be safe.

“This is a cynical attempt to bully tube staff who are involved in a democratic vote over the important issue of safety-critical jobs and the drive towards unstaffed stations. Threatening and intimidating workers who are rightly concerned about staff and passenger safety is outrageous.

“We are calling on London Underground to lift this threat immediately. We are now in the ridiculous position where TfL management are openly admitting that the tube is facing massive cuts that will condemn passengers to travel on ancient, under-staffed and unsafe infrastructure while at the same time they are attacking their own workforce who are prepared to stand up and do something about it.

“This attack on the workforce is an attack on safety and it must stop right now.”