Workers' Liberty

Service control staff were barely out of one naff 'restructuring' than we faced another. This time, it is all about 'upgrading' to super new control centres. This may sound like the way forward for the future of service control - the problem is the way that management are treating workers in the process.

LUL is creating the grade of Service Controller, combining the functions of signallers and line controllers. But what about signallers who don't want to be line controllers?! There is no protection for their jobs. Instead, they are being made to apply for promotion to the new grade, even though the majority of it is the same work, and with no guarantees about what will happen if they fail the application.

Part of this restructuring is the closure of the remaining signal cabins. This leaves Met and District Line signallers' jobs at risk, but the company has offered no alternative jobs to them. Instead, they get the same 'apply for promotion to the new grade' line.

The Met and District have an 'Interim Control Facility', but it is a mystery to us on what basis management have allocated the posts in this facility. With most workers suspecting a 'faces that fit' policy, it is not surprising that no-one has any faith in the fairness of management's practice.

With 200 posts due to go, it looks like management may be using the 'apply for promotion' rule as a way of weeding out those who do not fit in with their new scheme of things.

You can't even get a normal transfer or hardship move at the moment, with some of us waiting more than two years. Every other grade has a 'movements committee' to deal with individual cases for transfer - if it's good enough for other grades, then it should be good enough for service control too.

With management on the rampage, it is vital that we call a halt to these abuses. With the last restructuring, the unions let us down badly. We have to learn from that rather than let it demoralise us. The main lesson we should learn is: don't put all your trust in union officials; rank-and-file workers must assert ourselves and demand the fight that we need.