RMT Executive decisions

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

That we are appalled that following the agreement we reached with London Underground last week, LU has instructed its lawyers not to discuss re-employing Arwyn Thomas, and instead to discuss only a financial settlement.

This is despite an Employment Tribunal having awarded Arwyn interim relief, finding that he was unfairly dismissed due to his trade union activities and asking LU to reinstate him. The only way to put right the injustice of Arwyn's dismissal is to reverse it, by Arwyn returning to work as a London Underground driver.

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

That we note that London Underground has agreed to release all our stations representatives - industrial relations and health and safety - to attend a meeting to discuss the reviews of the Operational Strategic Plan (OSP: job cuts) on May 24, and that the meeting will take place at the Indian YMCA, Fitzroy Square from 10:00 until 17:00.

We instruct the General Secretary to ensure that:

• all representatives are advised by post of this meeting and that they are expected to attend

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

That we note the report from our Regional Organiser and the recent discussion with our representatives. We accept our Regional Organiser’s recommendation that we accept the proposed machineries of negotiation for London Underground, both industrial relations and health & safety. We await clarification of the two issues raised with the company before signing our agreement.

We instruct the General Secretary, once agreement is signed, to advise all relevant branches and representatives, providing them with a copy of the documents.

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

We note that London Underground has agreed to our request to reinstate uniform cleaning vouchers. We instruct the General Secretary to inform London Underground of our acceptance of this; ask the company to restore the vouchers as soon as possible; and ask the company for a list of outlets which accept the vouchers. The company’s reply is to be placed back in front of us.

We further instruct the General Secretary to advise all London Underground members of:

• our success in achieving the reinstatement of uniform cleaning vouchers

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

That we note the report from our Regional Organiser.

We accept the company’s offer on grade progression for the Power Control Room, and congratulate our rep and our members for taking a firm stance and achieving a far better deal than was originally offered.

We note that our outstanding concerns regarding the TAC office have now been addressed. We instruct the General Secretary to conduct a referendum of our members in the TAC office, with a recommendation to accept the company’s offer on grade progression.

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

Following consultation with our representatives, we accept the agreement tabled to us, which

• secures the re-engagement of Eamonn Lynch without loss of salary;
• establishes a review of industrial disputes;
• arranges legal discussions in the Arwyn Thomas case in an attempt to resolve the dispute, which in our view can be resolved only by his reinstatement; and
• agrees a further meeting between LU and RMT next week.

RMT GGC decision (extract):

Following consultation with our representatives, we call strike action as follows:

All London Underground train driver members are instructed not to book on for any duty that commences:

• between 21:01 on Monday 16 May and 11:59 on Tuesday 17 May
• between 12:00 on Wednesday 18 May and 11:59 on Thursday 19 May
• between 12:00 on Friday 20 May and 21:00 on Friday 20 May

All London Underground train driver members are further instructed not to book on for any duty that commences:

RMT GGC decision:

That we note the result of our ballot for strike action is as follows:-

Number of ballot papers issued ....1298.................
Total votes cast ....595 (45.8% turnout).......
Number voting “Yes” .....379 (63.9%)....
Number voting “No” .....216...............
Spoilt Papers ....0.........

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

That we note the report from our Regional Organiser. It is clear that London Underground Ltd is using the ‘rainbow’ attendance procedure to crank up its persecution of our members who are unfortunate enough to be unable to attend work through sickness, injury or other adverse circumstances. The company is using arbitrary targets and spurious ‘patterns’ to summon members to meetings, at which it denies them representation, and from which it issues ‘outcome’ letters which threaten disciplinary action.

RMT GGC adopted the following report:

We welcome the transfer of the train maintenance contract on London Underground’s Jubilee Line from the privately-owned Alstom to the publicly-owned Tube Lines. This comes at a time when the Jubilee Line is plagued by delays and disruptions, and illustrates that this union was right to campaign against the contracting-out of this work.