Health and safety

TUBE UNION RMT warned today that they have been notified by London Underground that a major announcement on jobs, services and safety cuts is due to made to senior union representatives at 9am tomorrow – Thursday 21st November.

The announcement was trailed by tube boss Mike Brown at a recent meeting of the London Assembly where he confirmed that ticket offices, station and platform staffing and other safety critical posts would be threatened in response to £225 million annual cuts imposed on TFL in the Government Spending Review.

We note and adopt the report of our Southern Sub-committee.

We welcome the resolution from our Jubilee South branch, and support its proposals. We therefore instruct the General secretary to:

1. Organise a public meeting in defence of London Underground jobs, preferably in conjunction with Action for Rail, and involving disability access to transport pressure groups such as Transport for All, and supportive MPs and GLA members.

Transport For All; the charity campaigning for a fully accessible, reliable and affordable transport network for disabled and older Londoners has written to the Evening Standard describing the horror that disabled and older passengers will feel over tube bosses plans to cut staff.

Transport For All describe it as living in la-la-land to think cctv and ticket machines is a suitable alternative to station staff for the 43% of wheelchair users who have suffered hate crime on the tube, or the 29% of disabled people who feel unsafe using the underground.

The Letter

In this edition:

• RMT Demands 24/7 Supervisor on Every Station - No Ticket Office Closures
• LU Says No Consultation on Wave & Pay Because Mayor has Decided it Will Go Ahead
• Cash Handling - Another trial!

Download the newsletter below.

We note the resolution from our Jubilee South branch. We share its concern at London Underground management’s attempts to impose a less safe procedure for dealing with defective Platform Edge Doors. Once again, the company appears to be seeking a pretext for cutting staff, regardless of the consequences for passenger safety.

We note the correspondence from London Underground Ltd and the report from our Regional Organiser advising his response. We endorse his call for adequate release to be granted to our representatives to enable us to proceed promptly with the important work of scrutinising the implementation of the S stock upgrade.

Reports and developments are to be placed in front of us.

We note the resolution from our LU Fleet branch, and share its disgust at London Underground Ltd management’s attacks on the jobs and working conditions of our fleet maintenance members.

We note the report from our Regional Organiser.

We therefore reaffirm our industrial action, and instruct the General Secretary to:

• Write to all LUL driver members by post reminding them of this industrial action, why it is in place and what they should do.
• Send an rmt mail to all LUL Station Supervisor members, explaining the action that drivers are taking.
• Place reports and developments in front of us.

London Transport Regional Council, branches and representatives to be advised.

We note the legal advice on file. We therefore intend to reinstate our suspended industrial action should London Underground Ltd attempt to again impose a detrainment procedure that does not involve physical checking that trains are empty by staff on the platform.

We instruct the General Secretary to obtain an update on this issue, including the likely timescales involved, and to seek co-ordination with ASLEF.

Reports and developments are to be placed in front of us. London Transport Regional Council and branches to be advised.

We note the correspondence from London Underground Ltd, and its failure to give the assurance we sought that it will not close or cut the opening hours of any of its ticket offices.