• RMT Upfront is the newsletter for Tube drivers, produced by the RMT. We are the specialist transport workers union with over 1700 tube driver members.  Please download the attched newsletter to get all the latest news.  You can also print it out and distribute it in your depot.

Bosses Plan To Impose 4 Minute Train Service

Tube bosses have announced plans to impose their bluntly named ‘Covid-19’ timetables with a four minute train frequency across the combine, from the 26th of April.

In response, the RMT has announced that we plan to prepare for a ballot calling for industrial action. At a time when we are risking our lives and that of our families to come to work; it is both unnecessary and unsafe to expect us to operate at such a high level of service throughout the day, exposing ourselves to coronavirus, when trains are frequently empty. London Underground has confirmed that passenger loading is down 95%. It will be some time before that number starts to increase.

The RMT has reiterated that as professional train drivers we willingly play our part to get essential workers such as doctors, nurses, cleaners and supermarket employees to where they need to be, but this doesn't mean that we agree to come into work to operate an unnecessary level of service at the risk of our own health.

At the beginning of April meetings took place across London Underground at which your RMT reps flatly rejected the proposed ’Covid-19’ schedules.

These were then referred to Trains Functional Council where the RMT secured an agreement that the imposition would be postponed and the sheets looked at again. We were therefore amazed when management recently announced their intention to impose the same schedules with no changes made at all.

It was at this point that an emergency Train Grades meeting was called and 50 reps from across LU made our rejection of these sheets clear, and a motion to this effect was agreed. Our NEC has now made a decision to prepare for a ballot to fight back against the imposition of these unnecessary duty sheets.

Download the attached newsletter, to also read the following stories:

• ACAS Update: Bosses must improve duties or they face a ballot

• RMT prepares to ballot over  new timetables

• Safety concerns and right to refuse

• RMT continues to defend our drivers

RMT Upfront April 2020, Cor... by RMT London Calling on Scribd