Workers' Liberty

There is no reason for any further delay by our unions in calling action against LUL’s attacks on our jobs.

LUL now has security guards and agency staff working on its stations, and is persisting in its plans for ‘mobile supervisors’ who cover more than one station at a time. Meanwhile, the company is still sitting on its plan to devastate ticket offices, is unfairly blocking internal promotions in order to justify direct recruitment, and is cracking down on discipline and attendance.

We need to stop the rot now. Our terms and conditions have been eroded over the last few years, and the present attacks are aiming at the heart of our working practices. Management’s intention is to have an all-singing all-dancing workforce.

The unions’ response needs to be swift and united.

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Management are coming up with a new attack every week – training security guards to issue penalty fares, diluting the rules on minimum staffing levels, who knows what next. And as long as the unions say they will fight but do not say when, the attacks will keep coming.

This week’s RMT reps’ meeting must demand that the union names a timescale for balloting for action – and that timescale must start as soon as possible. There is something of a tradition of these meetings being seen as 'where you go to find out what the union is doing'. Instead, they should be 'where you go to tell the union what to do'. TSSA reps have already told their union head office that they want a strike – it tells you something about the strength of feeling in the workplace when a union that hasn’t been on strike in living memory is talking about doing so.

When the unions have let members down in disputes over recent years – for example on pay, or on the staffing cuts that came with the shorter working week – one major factor was that they let the issue drag on and on before having a ballot, then gave up because so much momentum had been lost.

Most rank-and-file staff can see clearly that we need to fight to defend ourselves. If there are areas where the unions needs to work harder to convince people, then union activists should get on with doing so (with resources and help from head offices and full-time reps) – it should not be an excuse to delay action. Delaying does not necessarily gives you time to build momentum, it can do the opposite: let momentum drain away and give management more time to attack.

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This is a battle for all grades. Casualisation and de-staffing affect every grade, so all grades must stand together. If there is no Station Supervisor on duty, then it is not just station staff who will be more vulnerable – it will be the drivers and service control staff who need the Supervisor’s assistance during incidents and emergencies.

Station staff must not be left to fight alone. Management just love the idea of different grades sniping at each other – that’s why they deliberately try to play us off against each other, unfortunately with the help of those such as ASLEF bureaucrats who thrive on grade chauvinism. Don’t listen to their divisive comments: stand together.