Defending jobs

In recent meetings with London Underground over the proposed 1,000 job cuts, it has become apparent that management is not carrying out meaningful consultation.

London Underground is trying to force through job cuts, which amount to the first stage in plans by TfL to cut its budget by £2.5 billion. TfL inherited a debt worth over £2 billion from failed privateer Metronet. Instead of cutting our senior managers’ inflated salaries, getting rid of parasitical private contractors and opening the books to public scrutiny, TfL/LUL are attempting to do away with thousands of jobs.

RMT head office circular No. IR/48/09, issued today

RMT is deeply concerned at LUL’s announcement that they intend to get rid of 970 jobs. They are claiming that these cuts will not impact on the service and that these positions are all backroom jobs.

RMT press release, issued today

TALKS ON London Underground’s plan to axe 1,000 jobs failed to clear the first hurdle today after the company refused to agree consultation arrangements.

The company effectively walked away from the table after refusing to discuss the procedure for the consultation, trying instead to steamroller through its own terms of reference – even down to the number of reps from each union.

[1] The RMT held a protest today outside London Underground head offices to protest at the first wave of job cuts which comprises of 1000 jobs. Around thirty RMT activists turned out to demand that those responsible for running up the massive TfL/LU defecit of over £2.5 billion be sacked and not the workers who are being sacked because of senior management incompetence.

LUL Management refused to agree consultation arrangements today over their plans for 1,000 job cuts. The top level Company Council meeting was called to discuss massive reductions in white collar jobs, including ex-Metronet staff.

The trouble started when Management refused outright to continue discussing procedure for consultations. Management tried to impose their own ‘terms of reference’ for the talks and even their own numbers of reps from different unions.

RMT press release, issued today

RMT to lobby LUL headquarters at Broadway from 08:00

LONDON UNDERGROUND’S biggest union will tomorrow (Wednesday) demonstrate its opposition to at least 1,000 redundancies planned by Tube bosses with a mass Lobby at the network’s 55 Broadway headquarters.

The noisy and colourful protest will commence at 08:00 on Wednesday, February 11

The union has already indicated that it will resist job losses, and that any attempt to impose compulsory redundancies among its members would be met with a ballot for industrial action.

RMT press release, issued today

ANY THREAT of forced redundancies of RMT members at TfL and London Underground will be resisted, the capital’s biggest tube and rail union said today.

In response to news that at least 1,000 jobs would be cut and fears that thousands more were under threat, RMT said that any move attempt to impose compulsory redundancies would be met with a ballot for industrial action.

Following some very unsavory legal advice it now appears that jobs will be under threat when Metronet staff return to London Underground on 8th December. It appears that although all the staff are being tranferred to LUL, the contracts will remain with Metronet. This makes it possible for example that Metronet withdraw the contract from LUL and give it, let's say, to Balfour Beatty leaving the current Metronet employees jobless. The advice is provided in full underneath.

----Original Message-----

Dear Bob,

RMT press release, issued today

ANY THREAT of forced redundancies of RMT members at TfL and London Underground will be resisted, the capital’s biggest tube and rail union said today.

The union today said it was alarmed by today’s announcement that “hundreds” of jobs could be lost across TfL as part of a drive to find £2.4 billion in “efficiency savings.

“TfL has made vague statements about the need to reduce headcount across TfL and that can only cause alarm among our members,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.