London Underground
UK: Tube maintenance workers begin six days of strikes
The first of two 72 hour strikes by more than 2,300 workers at failed private maintenance firm Metronet is to go ahead from 6pm tonight.
The strikes were called after the company and its administrator failed to give the unequivocal guarantees on jobs, transfers and pensions that the union is seeking.
"The letter we have received from Metronet and the administrator falls way short of the guarantees our members need and deserve," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today
Metronet works vote 95% in favour of strike action
Workers at the Tube maintenance consortium Metronet voted 95% in favour of strike action this week, as station staff on the Bakerloo line begin a second 24 hour strike over health and safety.
Metronet collapsed into administration recently, four years into a controversial PPP costing £17 billion. Jobs are going to be transferred to Bombardier, one of the stakeholders in the Metronet consortium.
Transport for London workers vote for strike action over pensions
RMT members covered by the Transport for London Pension Fund have voted by a massive 15-to-one margin for strike action to protect the pension rights of people forced to leave their jobs through ill-health.
The union is calling on the employers involved (list below) to guarantee that they will not bring forward or support proposed changes that would dramatically affect qualification for ill-health pensions.
London tube workers strike over safety
A section of the Bakerloo line is suspended as 150 workers stage a 24 hour strike over staffing levels.
Drivers and station staff walked off the job for 24 hours at 10pm last night (Thursday) over management plans to reduce the number of station staff available to remove passengers from trains. This has caused the closure of the Bakerloo line between Queens Park and Harrow and Wealdstone.
Tube cleaners shafted by Blue Diamond
A £20 million contract to clean London Underground stations has been terminated after it was revealed hundreds of cleaners had been underpaid.
Blue Diamond, Britain's largest independent cleaning firm, had been paying about 400 workers £5.05 per hour instead of the agreed £5.50. The three year contract, which started in October last year, was for cleaning the District, Circle, Metropolitan, Hammersmith and City and East London lines.
Tube workers vote for further strikes
Following a vote 6-1 in favour of industrial action on Thursday, the RMT union has announced two 24 hour strikes, on the 21st February and 2nd March.
This action will be co-ordinated with ASLEF, whose members voted for the same action in a separate ballot today.
Workers backed action over issues that include policy on signals passed at danger (Spads), health and safety, bargaining arrangements, harassment, discipline, denial of representation rights and imposition of excessive punishments.
Tube strike update: new offer criticised
RMT and ASLEF arrange joint ballot over health and safety, harrassment and breached agreements.
Bob Crow announced new offer yesterday before members or union organisers knew anything about it.
Background to the tube drivers' wildcat
As RMT station workers struck over jobs and safety on Monday 9 January, tube drivers on the Northern line took wildcat strike action in support of a suspended colleague.
This is Hertfordshire reported that there were severe delays on the Northern Line throughout Monday, but they had little to do with that day's Tube strike called by the RMT union in protest at safety concerns over the new roster to be introduced next month.
Second tube union to ballot for strike action
Over 2,000 ASLEF members employed by London Underground could be set to join RMT members on the picket lines as the union begins a strike ballot.
Half of LU's drivers are ASLEF members, and joint action would threaten a complete shutdown of the tube network - a marked difference from the strikes of RMT station staff on the 1 and 9 January.
The ASLEF press release stated:
Interview with an RMT member: The New Year tube strikes
With two tube strikes in as many weeks, and more still to come, libcom.org conducted this interview with a long standing London Underground worker and RMT member on the eve of the second strike.
The interview is presented here in full.
Why are station staff striking?
Contrary to public perception, it has nothing to do with greedy drivers!
