[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.
This weekend has raised serious questuions about the robustness of the fabled datum mark alignment system. A driver reported that although the datum marks looked as though all was well,he was unable to see a set of double doors at the front of the train. This raised a real concern as to the confidence we can place in this system,and as a result the driver asked for all Cat A staion platforms to have a member of staff to enable safe despatch. This reasonable request was surprisingly turned down.
At a well attended meeting of the Neasden branch, RMT members from the Willesden Green group voiced their disgust and anger at the bullying, intimidation and complete lack of duty of care bestowed upon them by their GSM.
Steve Hedley and I buttonholed senior LU Managers today about their policy on the heavy snowfall last Monday. The radio and TV advised everyone not to travel and TfL cancelled the buses on safety grounds. Quite rightly so.
But now LUL managers have started deducting pay and leave from staff who couldn't get in. So they stop people getting in, then fine them! Has the left hand knowledge of what the right hand is up to?
Arnos Grove driver, Zak Khan, harshly sacked last month after having a SPAD last October, has had his appeal decision deferred, not once, but twice. At his appeal hearing on 3rd February, Zak’s rep, Dean O’Hanlon, pointed out the many points which the original disciplinary panel skipped over, along with new evidence, and made a strong case for Zak’s reinstatement. Appeal Chairman, Nick Shaw, listened to the points made, before announcing that he was not going to make his decision immediately; the appeal would now be reconvened at 1530 on Friday 6th February.
The dastardly attacks on our cleaning grade activists by ISS, the largest of the cleaning companies, intensified throughout January. Mary Boakye, our dedicated rep at Northumberland Park depot, was wrongly sacked following an accident at work in October, reinstated and then sacked again at a hearing on December 9th. Mary had an appeal hearing at the ISS head office on January 8th. At the same time the secretary of the cleaning grades committee, Clara Osagiede, was facing a trumped up charge of going home early after representing a member.
The following collective grievance will be presented to LUL management tomorrow (Friday 6 February). To add your name to it, please contact Janine Booth either by email or by text to 07748-760261 TODAY (Thursday).
COLLECTIVE GRIEVANCE - NON-ATTENDANCE TO WORK DUE TO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS
We the under-named submit this collective grievance arising from our inability to attend work on Monday 2 February due to adverse weather conditions.
TFL/LUL intend to cut 1,000 jobs. RMT is kicking off our fightback against this on Wednesday 11 February with a protest outside the building where both LUL management and many of the workers who may be affected are based.
We will be meeting outside St James Park tube station at 07:30 am to demonstrate outside 55 Broadway.
A leaflet advertising the protest is attached. Please download and distribute it.