London Overground

from General Secretary Bob Crow

I had received serious reports from our London Overground Branches with regards to the harassment of our Conductor members. Incidents that were reported included the covert monitoring of Conductors, the misuse of the disciplinary procedure and LOROL were preventing our members from wearing RMT badges, ties and lanyards, whereas ASLEF members were allowed to wear their union’s regalia.

The General Grades Commitee said "“We note the report from our Regional Organiser and that the issues have been addressed."

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

That we note the correspondence from our Willesden Rail Branch and are concerned at the issues raised including the unfair treatment or our Conductor members in comparison to Drivers in another organization and the reported harassment and monitoring of our members in regard to Uniform Standards.

The General Secretary is instructed to request a meeting with the company in order to discuss the issues raised in the correspondence and to obtain a report for the GGC from the Lead Officer on this matter.

RMT CLEANERS have forced contractor John Laing Integrated Services to recognise the union on London Overground following an organising campaign that has seen the vast majority of the workforce join the union since the end of March.

A ballot carried out under Central Arbitration Committee rules after the firm refused to enter into a voluntary agreement returned a six-to-one vote to give RMT bargaining rights for the staff, who work from depots at Acton, Gospel Oak, New Cross Gate and Willesden.

RMT official circular

Following our acceptance of the Company’s pay offer in April 2010, a supplementary offer was tabled by the Company for Station Grades. This has now been considered by the General Grades Committee that has taken the following decision:-

“That we note the report from the Regional Organiser on proposals for a supplementary agreement for Station Assistants and Station Assistant GPRs on LOROL.

RMT members recently protested outside Whitechapel Station. The East London Line which runs through Whitechapel has reopened, but this once publicly owned railway is now making profits for privateers. Whilst RMT welcomes the extension of the line, we want it brought back under government control as a public railway, where profit is fed back into the service.

You can see more RMT videos at RMTv.

On Monday morning, the re-opened and extended East London Line officially welcomed its first weekday passengers.

Welcome to the ten former Southern station staff.

In this RMT newsletter, we invite you to join the union, and in doing so you will be making your views and opinions known and addressed.

In the coming weeks, RMT reps from other areas on the LOROL network will be visiting the stations to talk about the benefits and reasons why you should join RMT.

In the meantime, if you have work-related issues or concerns, please do not hesitate to call me, Ken Duffy: my number is available from the Supervisor at New Cross Gate.

Concerning the next pay deal … As you are aware, negotiations are due to start in the new year. RMT would like to hear your views and ideas on the pay deal, so please let your local rep know your feelings about what the final outcome should be.

For example, do you want a one-year deal, or two? On stations, would you be willing to work until later times for a bigger pay rise?

We think your views count.

A proposal from management is to micro-manage station staff and other grades by introducing the customer service ‘dashboard’. Staff are already audited on a daily basis on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Your union reps were consulted on Dashboard but were uneasy on how far it will go and how much management expect from frontline staff.

One rep writes …