LUL Trains

Arnos Grove train operator, Zak Khan, was summarily dismissed at a Company Disciplinary Interview held on 16th January. His sacking was grossly unjust; it is also the latest attempt by an increasingly militant management to create a climate of fear in our workplace. We need to put a stop to this - it's time for action.

Read about how the company stitched up Zak and about the fight for justice - and Zak's reinstatement - in the attached newsletter.

Recently Upminster train operators had a collection to pay for a rememberance garden in memory of past drivers from the depot. This is situated at the rear of the new building set amongst the flower beds and cleverly landscaped area. Old disused sleepers have brass plaques displaying names of various past well thought of drivers, that are sadly not with us anymore.

RMT press release, issued today

LONDON UNDERGROUND’S biggest union has urged the company to withdraw an “astonishing and potentially highly dangerous” instruction which will require drivers to ask passengers to push carriage doors closed in tunnels.

RMT is seeking urgent discussions with LUL over an ‘Operation Standards Notice’ which will also require drivers to move trains through tunnels even if they are not certain that carriage doors are closed.

Merry Christmas from Morden Management

A Morden train operator has had his pay stopped because he has had an eye operation for a detached retina. If this condition had not been treated he would have lost the eyesight in his right eye.

Management tried to force Bob to come back to work on alternative duties. Bob declined this offer, the operation was successful and he was recovering at the expected timescale.

by Vaughan Thomas, RMT Trains Council

National and local media often accuse Tube drivers of being overpaid and under worked. Whenever we have a dispute they trot out the old refrain that a trained monkey could do our job, and it’s about time that the Mayor took on the unions! Flogging’s too good for the likes of us!

They compare us to underpaid workers in the emergency services: the nurses, paramedics and firefighters and say we should be grateful for what we’ve got. How dare we ask for more!

by Bill O’Dowd, Trains Council

LUL management can’t get a new Attendance At Work policy, so say they will ‘enforce the existing one’. This means there will be no more ‘not normally counted items’ such as medical treatments at hospital, unless it is an emergency admittance!

Its official: no one seems to know!

After numerous meetings with management, Connect experts and a series of TETRA wave boffins, the Train’s Health and Safety Council are none the wiser about the effects of TETRA waves on the health of our members.

Given that we are mere drivers this is hardly surprising. More worryingly, at a recent TETRA conference organised by LU, the head of LU’s Occupational Health and an eminent expert in the field, brought in for a questions and answers stint, could not give guarantees about the safety of this new technology.

If you are not already aware, this is how the LU Health and Safety Machinery works: if Health and Safety problems or concerns arise locally, the first port of call is your local RMT health and Safety Representative at the Depot. They will raise these concerns with the local manager. If no resolution to the problem can be found, the matter will be referred to us at the Tier 2 Trains Safety Council. If we are unable to resolve the matter it then gets referred to LU Directors / RMT Head office level for them to resolve. Below is a snapshot of items currently being discussed at Tier 2.

Owing to the amount of upgrades with stock and signalling, LU last year allowed the RMT to appoint a dedicated Safety Rep solely to deal with new Upgrade issues. This Rep is Gwyn Pugh from Acton Town Depot.

He has supplied us an update of the burning issues that we will be facing soon.

Code Red: there are plans afoot for Controller to have the ability to stop trains immediately without having to call a „code red‟. The Controller will have a button on his desk that we only have to push for all trains to grind to a halt.