Health and safety

Transport union RMT, along with fellow trade unionists and MP’s, will be demonstrating outside Kings Cross station on Sunday 18th November at 11.00 to Mark the 25th anniversary of the Kings Cross fire and to highlight the continued need for a fully staffed and safe tube network.

Local MP Frank Dobson will table the following Early Day Motion in Parliament on Monday:

We note the correspondence from London Underground Ltd.

LUL’s letter confirms our suspicions that it still intends to increase automation in order to attack jobs and conditions, and we reaffirm our determination to resist this.

We further note reports that some testing of technology to facilitate driverless trains may have taken place at Wembley during the first weekend of November. We instruct the General Secretary to obtain an urgent report on this, and to place it in front of us.

From General Secretary Bob Crow

Further to Circulars NP/269/12 and NP/279/12 dated 2ND and 8TH November 2012 ,you will be aware that the new CICA scheme was voted through on Monday evening in the House of Commons, in spite of opposition by the Labour Party and a campaign by this union and others and victims groups.

The new scheme:

removes injuries in bands 1-5 (£1,000 - £2,000)
significantly reduces (by approximately half) the tariffs in bands 6-12
removes injuries caused by suicide or attempted suicide from the scheme completely.

From General Secretary Bob Crow

The following resolution was passed by London Transport Regional Council;

“That our Union supports the continuing use of boarding ramps to enable access for mobility impaired passengers to London Undergrounds trains. We insist that this is properly risk assessed and that there are always adequate numbers of staff on every station to facilitate use of the ramps.”

The General Grades Committee met to consider the matter and made the following decision;

We note the report of a meeting that took place yesterday with two Directors of London Underground Ltd. It appears that this meeting did not take place in line with our previous decision of 25 October 2012, and instruct the General Secretary to obtain an explanation of this and to place it in front of us.

We note that in the meeting, LUL stated that:

• there will be no driverless trains in the near future
• the Bakerloo line upgrade due in 2020 as yet has no agreed funding
• it anticipates employing more station staff as the service frequency increases
  

That we note the result of ballot for strike action is:-

Total votes cast - 5

Number voting “Yes” - 4

Number voting “No” - 1

That we note the result of ballot for action short of strike action is:-

Total votes cast 5

Number voting “Yes” - 5

Number voting “No” - 0

We congratulate our members for taking this firm stance against the development of ‘driverless trains’, and note that London Underground Ltd states that it is not proceeding with these tests.

“No plans in relation to preparing for the introduction of driverless train on London Underground” - Tube Lines

We note the correspondence from Tube Lines, stating that it has “no plans in relation to preparing for the introduction of driverless train on London Underground” and that “This is a matter for London Underground to determine”. We instruct the General Secretary to continue to press Tube Lines for information concerning its involvement in developing technology that may facilitate driverless trains or a reduction in the driver’s role.

We note the correspondence from London Underground Ltd, and instruct the General Secretary to arrange for the appropriate officer(s) and representative(s) to attend the meeting suggested by LUL.

We further instruct the General Secretary to draft a list of issues and demands that we will raise at this meeting, and to place these in front of the GGC in advance of the meeting.

Any developments to be placed in front of us.

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

The RMT General Grades Committee has agreed to ballot for action short of strike action driver members on the Bakerloo and Central Lines for a safe procedure for detraining passengers.

This follows a joint meeting of RMT and ASLEF members held on Monday 22nd of October to discuss the detrainment procedure on the Bakerloo Line. The meeting was addressed by RMT Regional Organiser Brian Whitehead and ASLEF executive member Terry Wilkinson.