Pay

At the pay talks on Friday, London Underground blamed the recesession for their disgraceful 5 year slap in the face to all staff.

The Director for Employee Relations said "The severe downturn in the economy is having a major effect on all companies, and we are no different. Because of this uncertainty and the steep falls in interest rates and inflation, we have to plan for the risk to our future income. This makes entering into a process of negotiating pay increases extremely difficult."

By Paul Jackson, Secretary, RMT LU Engineering branch

Times are hard, companies are cutting back and by and large workers are paying the price of other people's mistakes or cynical moves by companies to maximise profits. One such example was Emcor Rail, which help to maintain station infrastructure on behalf of TubeLines.

This new issue of RMT London Calling newsletter spells out the reasons why we all need to demand a decent pay rise to protect ourselves from the effects of the recession. It also tackles common arguments for settling for a lower rise, and gives you facts and figures about how your bills are rising and how much our fat-cats bosses are being paid!

Click on '1 attachment' or the file name to download and print it. Please distribute it widely amongst your workmates.

RMT Head Office Circular No. IR/18/09 - 29th January 2009 CLAIM FOR PARITY PAYMENTS – EDF POWERLINK NOTICE OF FURTHER STRIKE ACTION

Further strike action has been called in support of the above dispute. I am informed that this follows direct consultation with RMT members concerned and that this has their backing.

Members have been instructed as follows:

TO NOT book-on for any turns of duty between the following dates and times:

"But other workers are losing their jobs."

Yes, and those workers could be our partners, sons, daughters or other dependants. If they lose their jobs, they will rely on our incomes more than ever.

Workers within TfL face job losses too. If we accept an inadequate pay deal, this will not protect our jobs: rather it will encourage management to attack them.

"But LUL/TfL has no money."

As London Underground and Transport for London prepare to tell us that they can not afford a decent pay rise for workers, what with the economic crisis 'n'all, let's look at how much they pay their top bosses ...

The figures for the most recent completed financial year (2007/08) revealed that ...

• Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy was paid more than £540,000: a salary of £334,720 plus a bonus of £115,200 and other benefits.
• Tim O'Toole, Managing Director of London Underground, £283,254 and a bonus of £73,115.

Management will try to convince us that we should accept a low pay rise because of the economic crisis. In truth, the crisis makes it even more important that we get a decent rise. Here's why ...

1. We did not cause the economic crisis, so we should not have to pay for it. We and other workers create the wealth in society. If bankers gamble some of that wealth away, that is not our fault.

2. Our bills have gone up and are due to go up even more.

We need a decent pay rise to meet the rising bills that we have to pay. Here are some facts and figures, with sources in [square brackets]:

LUL Management seems to have got themselves in a twist over the 2009 pay.

RMT have demanded a substantial one year pay rise and other benefits, including a ‘floor’ salary of £26,000. Heating and food bills have gone right up over the last year and Underground passenger numbers are higher than ever.