RMT press releases

TUBE UNION RMT confirmed today that it is balloting all London Underground (Metronet) members covered by the Signals Framework Agreement for strike action and action short of a strike in a dispute over the imposition of new rosters, breaches of agreements and the handing over of work to external contractors.

The ballot for action, which closes on 19th January, will involve 750 staff on the former Metronet sections of the tube network – all lines except for the Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee.

TRAIN DRIVER Alex Gordon has been elected to serve as the President of RMT, Britain’s biggest specialist transport union, for the coming three years.

In the postal ballot that closed today Bristol-based Alex, who will take up office in January, beat four other candidates and replaces John Leach, a London Underground worker whose term of office ends at the close of the year.

TUBE AND TfL union RMT today released new information which exposes the full extent of the first wave of cuts under Boris Johnson’s £5 billion tube savings programme with 144 station ticket offices and 1200 jobs under threat of the axe.

Photo by James Cridlan

TUBE UNION RMT today accused TfL and Tube Lines of slashing safety standards to dangerous levels as it emerged that twice weekly inspection of escalators will be cut to just once a week and the 12 week frequency of signal maintenance on the Jubilee Line will be cut to a 16 week cycle.

The latest safety and maintenance cuts on the Tube Lines section of the Underground have come just two weeks after RMT exposed moves to hack back the frequency of track inspections on the Jubilee Line extension.

RMT reps will be raising the issues at a meeting of the Health and Safety forum today – Thursday 3rd December – with a demand that the cuts be reversed as a matter of urgency.

RAIL UNION RMT today demanded an end to the “chaos, instability and waste” of rail privatisation following the government’s announcement this morning that National Express will have their East Anglia franchise terminated in 2011.

RMT are calling on the government to strip National Express of their remaining C2C contract and to make it clear that the company are being kicked off the UK rail tracks for good following the shambolic collapse of their East Coast Main Line operation.

Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary, said:

Photo by James Cridlan

TUBE UNION RMT today warned of serious risks to public safety as it emerged that track safety patrols are to be cut.

RMT are pointing to the move to halve safety inspections as clear evidence that claims by Mayor Boris Johnson that the £5 billion black hole facing TfL will not result in front line cuts are nonsense.

Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary, said: “We have warned all along that the multi-billion pound black hole facing TfL, and the financial chaos at Tube Lines, would result in real service cuts and would impact on safety and reliability.

Tube andTfL union RMT will be holding a demonstration in support of London Underground cleaners fight against privatisation this Wednesday (18 November) as it emerged that senior TfL bosses have received a 50% increase in bonus payments over the past two years from £3.6 million in 2007 to £5.3 million this year.

The tube cleaners, who are also fighting for TfL Chair Boris Johnson’s London Living Wage, will be outside the former Metronet headquarters at Templar House, 81-87 High Holborn at 12 noon on Wednesday 18th November.

Rail Union RMT revealed today that Network Rail have threatened to sack their entire maintenance workforce of 13,000 and to re-employ a reduced number of workers on new terms and conditions in a bid to bulldoze through a multi-billion pound cuts package.

The threat to sack the workforce, who carry out the essential day to day maintenance of tracks, signals and overhead lines, was thrown at RMT representatives during re-organisation talks.

Former Labour Cabinet Minister Frank Dobson has tabled an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons in support of RMT cleaners working on the Eurostar contract at St Pancras International and their fight for pay and workplace justice.

The Commons motion has been placed on the order paper on the eve of the first of four more 24 hour strikes by the Eurostar cleaners employed by the Carlisle Group which will start at 5.30am tomorrow morning (Friday 23rd October). There will be a noisy protest in support of the Eursostar cleaners, which will include solidarity visits from striking postal workers, between 8am and 10am Friday morning (23rd October) outside St Pancras International.