Rail union RMT today pledged an all-out political, public and industrial fight following the announcement from Transport for London (TfL) to introduce Driver Only Operation (DOO) on the whole of the London Overground network. At a meeting with the LOROL senior management held on Monday at Overground House, RMT demanded that the plans, would lead to the scrapping of the Guard grades and the implementation of DOO, be withdrawn.

However, instead of discussing the request, LOROL informed RMT that TfL have “exercised a clause in their contract” giving only six months to implement DOO on the network by the December timetable and have even commenced this process without first achieving the necessary Safety Validation certification required as they seek to bulldoze it through regardless of the safety risks involved.

To add insult to injury there was an attempt to implement ‘no strike clauses’ in the proposed Voluntary Redundancy (VR) scheme and proposed Flexibility & Attendance Bonus in a shameful attempt to bribe and bully our members into accepting the destruction of their jobs.

As well as preparing the ballot for industrial action RMT will take the political fight over this cash-lead attack on safety critical guards jobs into the House of Commons and City Hall and will be organising a series of public meetings and protests aimed at building support from the travelling public.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“The fight to defend 130 safety-critical guards jobs on London Overground will be center stage in RMT’s overall battle to defend jobs and safety on London’s transport services. RMT recognises that this lethal proposals has been brought about as result of the 12.5% cut in TfL funding announced in George Osborne’s Comprehensive Spending Review. Those cuts will be resisted by this union with all means at our disposal, including industrial action.

"The news that millions of passengers are to be put at risk through plans to throw the guards off London Overground trains on north London routes has already sent shockwaves through transport services and is clearly a foretaste of what is to come.

"We can expect many more of these attacks on jobs and safety as TFL slash hundreds of millions from their budget at Government behest. They will be met with the fiercest possible resistance from RMT as we link up the groups of workers in the firing line. "