LUL Trains

IN TWO separate disputes over the victimisation of RMT London Underground activists the union announced today ballots for action in support of train operators Eamon Lynch and Arwyn Thomas.

Click '1 attachment' / file name to download this as single-side A4 leaflet (PDF).

There was standing room only in the large function room at Ganleys in Morden. A packed branch / strike meeting kicked off the campaign to defend long standing RMT activist Arwyn Thomas from disciplinary charges following allegations made against him by strike breakers. Morden train operator Arwyn Thomas has been a NUR/RMT member for over 29 years.

Meeting opened at 1445

Present: D O’Hanlon, F Curtis, D O’Hare, G Pugh, V Thomas, G Williams, B McMunn, A Thomas, U Mirza, W Reid, B O’Dowd, D Rayfield, A Leach, N Hodgson and R Marshall

Apologies: G Watson, G Doyle, J T – Pinnock, J McDaid and N Eivers

Amendments to the minutes

None

Agreement of Minutes

Moved and agreed

Matters arising from the minutes

None

Membership report

Eamonn Lynch's Appeal was heard yesterday 25th of October. He was represented by Assistant General Secretary Pat Sikorski. Pat and Eamonn were informed by the Appeal Chairman that they would be informed on Friday of the decision.

RMT health and safety rep, Eamonn Lynch was sacked by London Underground yesterday 13th of October.

Eamonn was sacked for making an error while driving a train on Network Rail. But Eamonn's error was to follow instructions from the Network Rail signaller and the Bakerloo Line Control room. Indeed, the sacking panel said he should have refused those instruction. So Eamonn was sacked for not refusing to work on the grounds of health and safety! Despite his representative, Regional Organiser Brian Whitehead ripping the charges to shreds, Eamonn was summarily dismissed.

The following letter was put on the noticeboards at Elephant & Castle by, Brian Munro, newly appointed and co-opted health and safety rep:

To: All drivers, Elephant & Castle Dear Brother / Sister HEALTH & SAFETY REP - ELEPHANT & CASTLE

Following the suspension of Eamonn Lynch from London Underground premises the Bakerloo Branch agreed that I would stand in as the health & safety rep on an interim basis. RMT head office duly informed LUL on September 2nd. Unfortunately management refused to recognize the RMT’s appointment.

Click on the attachment to see the latest 'RMT up front', newsletter of the RMT train grades committee.

Articles follow:
Bend it like Beckham!
Becks can bend a ball, but not half as much as LU can bend standards and procedures
Remember the disgraced tycoon Robert Maxwell? He used to ask his legal advisors for their legal opinion; if he didn’t like their answer, he’d sack them, and get a new legal advisor. He’d repeat the process until he got the opinion he wanted. LU is no better. They have standards to ensure health and safety is maintained, if they don’t have enough staff to ensure standards and procedures are carried out correctly, they just bend the rules to suit them.

OEP: Good news to report on this one.

LU management have produced a document which waters down safety checks for trains. Your reps believe that this is a disaster waiting to happen. The document states that during special circumstances, special timetable operation, abnormal service patterns, failure of trip-cock testers, there is no requirement to test trip-cocks every trip. Every 48 hours or so seems good enough for LU.

As far as RMT is concerned, trip-cocks must be tested every trip regardless of other circumstances.

Some good news for a change! Over the past 6 months the Trains Safety Council have been reporting on LU’s proposal to introduce a series of safety critical changes to the role of driver, the Operational Effectiveness Programme. These have included: reversing 'blind' back into a platforms after an over-run, drivers self-dispatching at category ‘A’ platforms with defective OPO, checking signal aspect after SPAD and carrying on etc.