Tubeworker's blog

A correspondent from a busy Zone 1 station tells us the 15:00-23:00 cleaning shift on Friday was covered by just one cleaner. Sometimes there are as many as three, but usually at least two. Having just one cleaner working perhaps the busiest shift of the day, on a busy weekend, is indefensible.

The...

A supporter of the Workers' Liberty newspaper Solidarity spoke to a striking station worker and RMT activist on a picket line during the 6 June station staff strike. This is a slightly edited transcript of the interview.

The dispute is about three...

The app to submit requests for mutual changeovers of duties and annual leave has definitely improved the MCO process. But we reckon that developing it further could lead to even more benefits for work/life balance, particularly on stations.

In train depots, although not without flaws and...

The Evening Standard, certainly no friend to Tube workers, reports that 600 "TfL fat cats" are paid over £100k per year.

The number of people earning over £100k is up by 1/3 on the previous year. A total of £1.6m was also paid out in bonuses.

Tubeworker is normally staunchly opposed to job cuts...

It's bemusing seeing those who crossed LU picket lines to work during our strikes in March and June, and thereby assisted management who are coming for our jobs, pensions and terms and conditions, going on to praise RMT GS Mick Lynch, worry about further anti-strike legislation, or attack the Labour...

RMT has launched a new dispute over Tube cleaners' conditions.

The announcement of the dispute was made in a letter to Sadiq Khan, rightly attacking him for renewing ABM's cleaning contract despite mealy-mouthed comments during his election that he would "consider an in-house option".

It's not...

Mayor Khan has said in an interview that he is "not persuaded" of the need to change our pension arrangements.

That's the clearest statement anyone from TfL or City Hall has made that they don't agree with the Department for Transport's demands that the scheme must be cut. It's certainly a step...

23 June saw a nice coincidence of timing, as the Department for Transport announced they were extending TfL's current funding settlement, previously due to expire tomorrow, until 13 July - and on the same day, RMT announced that LU members had voted by over 90%, on a 53% turnout, to renew our...

Our strike on LU today led to another total shutdown of the network, once again proving the power we hold as workers and sending a clear message to our employers.

RMT members in all functions and grades walked out, with Unite members on TfL and LU also striking. Many members of TSSA and Aslef, and...

Following the successful re-ballot of RMT drivers on the five existing Night Tube lines further strikes have been called every Friday and Saturday until further notice on the Central, Jubilee and Victoria lines, with the Northern line joining from 1 July when Night Tube comes back there.

With Night...

It was revealed recently that Department for Transport officials have laid down the law to TfL commissioner Andy Byford, insisting he must get on with pension reform as a condition of further funding settlements.

Bernadette Kelly, the DfT's most senior civil servant, told Byford in a letter that...

RMT drivers have indicated their willingness to fight on in the dispute over enforced night working by returning a resounding majority in the re-ballot to renew the strike mandate.

64% of those balloted voted, with 628/715, 88%, voting for further action.

Striking over Night Tube hours is a key...

Following yesterday's magnificent strike on stations, RMT has announced a further strike in our dispute to defend jobs, pensions, and conditions, for 21 June. The strike will involve RMT's entire LU membership, in all functions and grades.

It's good to see a further strike called. It's a welcome...

A strike by station staff has shut down the service today, with trains running empty through closed stations, if at all.

The strike is part of RMT's dispute over pensions, agreements, and jobs. Today's strike of station staff was intended to particularly highlight and resist LU's plan to cut 600...

We're less than 24 hours in to RMT's overtime ban on stations, and it's already beginning to bite. We knew it had LU rattled, as they've been broadcasting PAs informing passengers about "industrial action between 3 June and 10 July", the period of the ban, and telling them to expect station closures...

RMT is re-balloting drivers as part of the dispute over enforced night working. That dispute is as important today as it was when the 2016 agreement was first ripped up, back in 2021.

When the deal between ASLEF and London Underground, which abolished the part-time Night Tube driver grade and...

Unite has secured an industrial action mandate across LU and most of TfL. Their ballot was over pension cuts and the pay freeze for centrally-employed TfL staff.

Mandates were secured in LU, Surface Operations, Network Management Control Centre, Compliance, Policing, and On-Street Service (CPOS)...

RMT has called off a planned strike at Green Park and Euston stations on 3 June, after LU finally agreed to a meaningful review into management bullying.

That's important progress. But the review is only a first step; if it doesn't lead to a change in the managerial culture, strikes must be...

RMT is re-balloting drivers as part of the dispute over enforced night working. That dispute is as important today as it was when the 2016 agreement was first ripped up, back in 2021.

When the deal between ASLEF and London Underground, which abolished the part-time Night Tube driver grade and...

We keep hearing, for example in the latest edition of On the Move, that there will be no pension changes for "several years". Sounds okay, until, if you're 40 or under, you remember that you won’t be retiring for at least 20 years... plenty of time for changes to made made!

And for those retiring...

Tubeworker replies to the letter to staff from the company. Management's words are in plain text. Our responses are in bold.

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Over the last few weeks, our network genuinely feels more like normal as we win customers back to our network.

So, no need to make drastic cuts then.

The Queen’s...

Nearly ten years after our unions first asked it to, TfL/LUL is finally adopting a policy on domestic abuse - though you would think from its self-congratulatory fanfare that it was the company's idea all along.

However, it has missed the opportunity to make clear that sickness absence due to...

RMT has called a strike on London Underground stations for Monday 6 June.

It's part of the union's overarching, LU-wide dispute to stop pension cuts, job cuts, and detrimental changes to terms and conditions. The stations strike will emphasise two of those three demands in particular, as stations...

Station workers at Green Park and Euston will strike on Friday 3 June against a long-running culture of management intimidation and bullying.

Senior management has stonewalled RMT reps, denying them any recourse to meaningfully remedy the issues surrounding bullying and an overbearing, excessively...

The Victoria Centre cover group, which includes Euston, Green Park, and Victoria, is the latest station group to learn the detail of LU's plans for its staffing levels.

Euston is losing 8 CSA2s and five part-time CSAs, including three Night Tube jobs. Green Park loses two full-time CSA1 positions...

RMT has extended its drivers' strikes during Night Tube hours to the Jubilee line, to coincide with the reintroduction of Night Tube running.

Strikes have been called from 20:30 to 04:29 on Saturday 21 May, and then every Friday and Saturday until 18 June. The same action is continuing on the...

Train driver union Aslef have won their third reballot on London Underground for industrial action if “management try to push through changes to working conditions or pensions without agreement”.
On an increase turnout of 68.3% and 98.5% in favour, it is to be welcomed that Aslef members have again...

Hot on the heels of the Heathrow announcement, LU has announced the detail of planned cuts at King's Cross.

Eight full-time CSA1 posts, 12 part-time CSA1 posts, and eight full-time CSA2 posts will go.

The scale of these cuts should leave no-one in any doubt as to what LU has planned. This is an...

Heathrow is the first station area on London Underground to learn the detail of LU's planned job cuts. LU intends to remove around a third of the workforce, cutting 10 full-time CSA1s, 12 full-time CSA2s, and five part-time CSA1s.

Whilst LU continues to stress that the cuts will be achieved via...

Chancery Lane station seems to be getting a dose of nostalgia, longing for the days when it used to close every Sunday - only this time (yesterday, Sunday 25 April), it was not because it is supposed to, but because of lack of staff. Wanstead also closed for lack of staff. And there were others too...