Jobs/Pay/Justice Dispute

I am pleased to announce that all RMT members facing compulsory redundancy have now been given or will be offered jobs. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone of you who showed steadfast support for your colleagues who were at risk of being made unemployed. In particular I would like to thank all reps activists and those who manned the picket lines that made our forty eight hour dispute a huge success.

From Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary

The attached two posters show clearly how the pay offers from London Underground and Transport for London - of a measly 1.5% this year (with an even more measly 0.5% in following years) - will not cover the real rising cost of living. In other words, it is a pay cut.

As part of the RMT pay claim this year it was proposed that medical redeployment would mean that any member of staff who was for medical reasons unable to do their current job would be given at least one other job offer. Management have agreed to discuss this with us. The same proposals were forwarded by other unions. The only union that did not submit medical redeployment as part of their pay claim was ASLEF.

Please note that this document is London Underground's policy not RMT's! We publish it here for information, not because we endorse it!

A key part of this document is in Section 2: 2. Staff Who Take Industrial Action Shifts lost through official industrial action will NOT count under the Attendance at Work procedure. Staff covered by the industrial action who do not attend for work and who are not sick or on leave should be recorded on SAP, as appropriate, under the code for Industrial Action Official.

Below is a list of 2009 pay awards for train drivers. This information certainly puts LUL's measly 1.5% - and even worse, 0.5% next year - into perspective!

A notice giving this information is attached - please download and circulate to all drivers.

• Arriva Cross Country: 3.5%
• Arriva Trains Wales: 4.75%
• Chiltern Railways: 3.5%
• DRS: 3.5%
• DB Schenker: 4.06%
• East Midlands Trains: 3.5%
• Gatwick Express: 3.3%
• GB Railfreight: 3.27%
  

We need unity across all grades to win

RMT has called further strike action in our campaign to protect thousands of jobs, secure a proper pay rise for our members and end management bullying and harrassment.

Monday 10th August 2009

To: All London Transport Regional Council RMT Members.

Dear Colleagues,

Train Drivers Pay Awards

Our employers would have us believe that all other workers are having their pay cut or frozen, and so LUL and TfL's1.5% offer is generous by comparison. But have a look at these ...

• Novartis Animal Health: 4.5% (effective 1 March 2009)
• Grand Central: 4.08% (effective 1 April 2009)
• Wyeth Pharmaceuticals: 4% (effective 1 January 2009)
• Standard Life: 3.9% (effective 1 April 2009)
• Scottish Water: 3.75% (effective 1 July 2009)
• Department of Work and Pensions: average 3.6% (effective 1 July 2009)
  

As of July 2009, annual price inflation rates of particular products:

• food: 5.6%
• fuel and light: 9.6%
• gas: 24%
• coal and solid fuels: 21.9%

[government inflation figures]

In the year to June 2009, the prices of many essentials rose at a far higher rate than RPI inflation:

• Coal & solid fuels up 21.9%
• Fuel and light up 9.6%
• Gas up 24.0%
• Electricity up 6.8%
• Water and other charges up 4.7%
• Fares and other travel costs 5.5%
• Bus and coach fares 7.3%
• Other travel costs 4.8%
• Food up 5.3%, with
  • tea up 10.3%