London Underground

Striking tube cleaners intimidated

Ed — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:34:47 +0000

The union is gathering evidence that cleaners have been bullied, harassed and threatened with the sack and with illegal punitive deductions from their wages if they take strike action.

Tube strike suspended after safety guarantees won

Steven. — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:44:11 +0000

Faced with the prospect of three days of strike action from 18:30 on Sunday, London Underground has abandoned plans that the union had described as a fundamental attack on Tube safety standards and casualisation of safety critical work.

RMT and TSSA vote for joint strike action

Ed — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:13:46 +0000

The strike ballot saw 1,673 members vote for action with 333 voting against. The ballot result opens the way for joint action with fellow Tube union TSSA, whose own members voted for action earlier this month. The unions are opposing management attacks on safety standards and the casualisation of safety-critical work (details in notes below).

Tube cleaners claim massive pay victory

Ed — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 22:09:56 +0000

RMT today revealed that Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has agreed that the London Living Wage of £7.20 an hour will become the minimum for some 900 cleaners on former Metronet contracts from the moment TfL take charge of them.

For some cleaners paid only the minimum legal wage of £5.85 it will mean an increase of at least £1.35 an hour - well over 20%.

Tube workers prepared to fight staff cuts

Ed — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:52:45 +0000

Trade unions have called a public meeting yesterday (Thursday) to fight the plans, which will see travellers unable to seek staff assistance at crucial times of the morning and night.

UK: Union claims victory as Metronet strike ends

Steven. — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:53:26 +0000

Strike action by more than 2,300 Metronet maintenance workers was suspended late last night after more than eight hours of talks between RMT, the failed company, its administrator and TfL yielded progress on the issues involved in the dispute.

UK: Tube maintenance workers begin six days of strikes

Steven. — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 12:02:07 +0000

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

catch — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 03:12:01 +0000

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

Ed — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:23:30 +0000

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

Joseph K. — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 08:24:54 +0000

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

Steven. — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 10:01:09 +0000

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

Steven. — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 10:26:43 +0000

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

Steven. — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 10:28:49 +0000

Bob Crow announced new offer yesterday before members or union organisers knew anything about it.

Background to the tube drivers' wildcat

Steven. — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 11:34:13 +0000

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

Steven. — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 10:31:14 +0000

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

libcom — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 11:00:00 +0000

The interview is presented here in full.

Why are station staff striking?
Contrary to public perception, it has nothing to do with greedy drivers!

Strike and wildcat - a day on the Underground

Steven. — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 11:36:25 +0000

In a separate action, the Northern Line - one of the busiest of the 12 lines - was shut down by the wildcat action of drivers who were supporting a sacked colleague

The BBC reported that when the strike ended at 1830 GMT a total of 19 stations remained closed and two tube lines were having delays.

New year's eve tube strike on safety and jobs

libcom — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 11:02:18 +0000

Daniel O’Rourke takes a detailed look at the action, the unions, the workers and the government.

As a result of the strike about 40 out of London’s 275 stations were closed, including Covent Garden in the heart of London’s West End and King’s Cross, one of the capital’s busiest stations.

P-P-Privatising the underground, and 'opposition'

libcom — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 10:58:13 +0000

New year's eve strike account here:
http://libcom.org/news/article.php/underground-new-year-strike-04012006