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All-out Tube strike threat
Dick Murray, Transport Editor05.02.08
A series of crippling 24 and 48-hour Tube strikes appeared inevitable today.
The two main unions have given London Underground 48 hours to agree to nine demands or they will ballot 7,500 staff on Thursday.
The demands are so strong and wide-ranging there is little or no chance of agreement within the next two days.
Unions are confident of "overwhelming support" for the strike call which could hit the entire network with pickets outside all stations. The first stoppages would take place from the middle of next month.
The RMT and TSSA want to stop non-union staff getting jobs and are calling for a ban on agency workers and sub-contractors working on overground lines recently taken into Tube control. They have also issued demands on safety and staffing issues.
A spokesman for Transport for London, parent company of the Tube, condemned the unions for threatening "disruption to millions of Londoners".
He added: "All the issues raised by the RMT and TSSA can and should be addressed through the normal negotiating procedures. The process has not broken down and it would be totally unreasonable to curtail
it by threats of strike action which can only lose staff pay and inconvenience the public to no purpose whatsoever."
Bob Crow, leader of the RMT, said planned changes to staffing levels and ticket office closures - revealed by the Evening Standard last year - "put our members' and passengers' safety at serious risk".
Each of the nine issues is "serious in its own right, but together they amount to a fundamental and unacceptable attack on staffing across the network which strikes at the very heart of its safe operation," said Mr Crow.
The row dates back to the Eighties when LU removed guards from trains. Mr Crow said: "When LU imposed driver-only Tube trains it assured the public and its own drivers that good station staffing levels would keep the system safe, but those assurances are now being undermined."
Gerry Doherty, general secretary of the TSSA, said that changes to the Tube's emergency plan - which would come into force if there was another terrorist attack, train crash or other major incident - would "undermine" the ability of staff to get passengers evacuated in time.
"LU has insisted on changes to its emergency plan that water down the staff required on duty and which our safety reps believe will undermine the ability to respond to emergencies and undertake safe evacuations," said Mr Doherty.
"LU has also sought to change its policy on when and how staff can refuse to work on safety grounds, in a way that is unworkable and in breach of legislation.
"Tube users should be as appalled as our members at the range of safety issues outstanding. I hope they will understand that LU's refusal to discuss these issues in the round left us with no choice but to tell the company that we are now in dispute."
THE UNIONS' DEMANDS
1. The unions want plans to close .. ticket offices and cut the opening times of many others withdrawn completely. LU temporarily halted the plans - aimed at saving money - but the unions say they remain active.
2. Unions claim LU has "unilaterally decided" to change the Congestion Control and Emergency Plan and remove the minimum numbers of each grade on duty. They demand reinstatement of original numbers of each grade of fully trained staff.
3. LU has changed its policy on staff refusal to work on grounds of safety - original policy must be reinstated.
4. Tube chiefs plan to introduce "mobile supervisors" responsible for several stations and limit staffing levels on Silverlink main line services, recently taken over by Transport for London. Unions demand that every station is "fully" staffed while trains are running with their own supervisors in charge.
5. Unions claim LU wants the new Terminal 5 station at Heathrow staffed by those subcontracted from other firms but wearing Tube uniforms - they demand directly employed and trained personnel.
6. LU's plans to use agency staff for ticketing and revenue inspection on former Silverlink stations must be scrapped in favour of directly employed staff.
7. Unions demand that all security at LU-owned or managed stations must be by directly employed staff.
8. Staff must not be left on their own at stations unless working "from a place of safety."
9. Changes in the way staff are employed must be changed. Tube bosses are accused of "systematically denying career opportunities" to experienced railway staff and going outside to recruit. Unions will tolerate outside applications only if there are insufficient internal applications.
Reader views (14)
Having tried to catch the Jubilee Line from London bridge the last 2 mornings you'd think they were on strike already.
- Craig, London
Go for full impact make 7 days for the strike action and they well start listening to your demands. Good luck.
- Sarah Mattey, London
Come back Maggie Thatcher - if ever there was a union that needs breaking it's the RMT. They use the 'safety' excuse at every turn to avoid the realities of modern life, to protect lazy and ineffective workers.
There is no excuse for being rude to station staff, however given that a lot of them wouldn't know a hard day's work if they came across it, and their only solution is to punish the traveller, then it's no wonder they get abuse. If the station staff tried not to affect the travelling public at every turn, we might be less rude to them.
- Graham, Fleet
If Tube workers dislike the way they are treated by members of the public then they clearly fail to understand the impact of previous strike action. These endless attempts to blackmail London by causing chaos for communters is selfish verging on sadistic. Strikers have lost every bit of sympathy they may have had and should be with treated with the same contempt as all other blackmailers.
- Clare, London
Robert, are we really to believe that we passengers are partly to blame for this strike? What rubbish! I think many of us passengers become extremely irritated by being bossed around by station staff (stand behind the yellow line etc) as if we were like 5 year olds.
Also I am extremely sceptical about the claim of under-staffing. On a number of occasions when I was changing lines at Holborn, a cheery station announcer would exhort passengers to give generously to station staff who were collecting for some children's charity. How come Tube staff have the time to stand around with collecting boxes in the rush hour? Obviously London Underground are overstaffed, if anything.
- Keith, London
What is good for them is not always good for us. I cannot walk very well due to recent medical problems. My trips from Earls Court to the business district are hard enough on the Tube. I sure hope it doesn't rain too much!
- Roger Michalosky, Kensington
Fab. More misery! Why don't they come up with something that will affect the people that count.
- Charlie, London
In answer to your question Liz from London and all the other people monaing about the strike as a London Underground employee I am all for the strike. I am fed up of the abuse we get from passengers and from people outside the company getting jobs with higher earnings than me and I have started from the bottom and worked my way up. I know of loads of people internally who have applied for jobs and failed because "they do not meet the requirements or have enough experience" which is all rubbish.
If passengers stopped giving us abuse everyday and London Underground changed the recruitment policy and promote people internally rather than externally then we wouldn't go on strike. You don't like getting shouted at in your job neither do London Underground staff so show us more respect and we wouldn't need the safety which we require to strike for, simple!
- Robert, London
Is there a sunny day coming up that only the RMT know about?
- Neil Evans, Notting Hill
Here we go yet again! Why can't Tube workers be like the private sector workers whose lives they are selfishly disrupting and either just do their jobs or change jobs if they don't like their job?
- Liz, London
Who does this idiot Bob Crow think he is? A god like figure? Londoners are sick and tired of this man and his union trying to run our everday lives as and when he feels like it. It's time for this government to do something to ban these strikes, every year it happens and every year we the commuters suffer.
If they want to make their point why don't they just leave all the barriers open at the stations so people travel for free, the companies would soon be around the table then.
- Ljuk, London, England
Why's that bloke from Norway getting all heated up about it? What's it got to do with him?
- Jimmy, London
For once these strike plans make sense. I was at a station this morning when the Jubilee Line was closed for at least 35 minutes. The station had one staff member who was overwhelmed and unable to cope with the congestion and confusion caused. Inadequate staffing is a massive danger to passenger safety.
- Howard, London, UK
Who will be affected? Not the employer, but the millions of passengers, especially those who don't have any alternative. Many people cannot afford a car.
More people will drive. It will create chaos. Many people get sick of exhaust from cars, the situation will get much worse for them.
- Espen Franck-Nielsen, Vestby, Norway
