So at last we have our strike dates. The phoney war can move on to becoming a real battle.
Prospects for solid action look good. We have RMT and TSSA taking strike action together, and a very stong feeling for action among station staff. Even if some people in other grades don't feel quite as strongly, they support this fight enough to deliver a resounding vote in the ballots, and will come out in great numbers in the strike, knowing that an attack on station grades is an attack on them too.
Tubeworker is pleased to see that a series of dates has been named, and that action short is being used to maintain the momentum in between strikes. We have argued for these tactics for some time.
But we are not convinced that 24 hours is long enough to deliver a decisive blow. It is too easy for management to patch together a service over just one day. Two days action would have made people feel that their loss of pay was worth it because the action would look much more serious and effective.
We also can not understand why the unions have not included a boycott of the £5 minimum Oyster top-up policy as part of the 'action short'. Staff have been demanding this for months and have been putting ourselves on the line boycotting it unofficially, waiting for the back-up of an official boycott.
The unions' industrial action decision explicitly states that it is open to review, so rank-and-file members should get discussing and get organising to put forward our ideas and strategies. Too many previous disputes have been hindered by top-down decision-making, so let's try to make this one different.
Now we have to get down to the business of organising the action as effectively as possible. We all need to set up action committees in our branches and workplaces - joint RMT/TSSA committees in workplaces where both unions are present. Talk to every member of staff: convince any waverers, answer management's arguments, give people confidence. Organise pickets - at stations as well as depots and engineering book-on points. Lots of people will be willing to picket who may not have done so before.
ASLEF members should put pressure on the Society's leaders to join the dispute. ASLEF officials have stated publicly that station staff job cuts do affect drivers, a nd it has recently been revealed that drivers' jobs are also under threat, with 27 rostered positions to go due to new timetables and the removal of rostered TeamTalk. So ASLEF should be part of this fight! If they don't join in officially, than rank-and-file ASLEF members should join in anyway. Remember the 11th commandment: you don't cross a picket line.
We need leaflets to give to the public explaining our case, and we can expect to receive a lot of support despite the hostility of the media.
Comments
We can win!
We've got to remember that we can win this fight.
After six months of letters from the unions and nothing but contemptuous replies, or no reply at all from LU, the unions named four strike dates and LU suddenly requested talks at ACAS. They're even saying they will discuss the imposition of the framework agreement and new machinery of negotiation, about which, up til last week, we apparently had no say.
So we have power; we should use it and go into this fight full of confidence.
London Underground have been frantically scraping staff together. Mike Brown has requested 'Incident CSAs' to volunteer. These are managers - even admin staff- who are being asked to do CSAs' two week's training in one day. They are expected to understand safety critical procedures, pass an exam and count towards minimum numbers on a station. This shows LU expect a solid stations dispute and are seriously worried about keeping stations open.
This also shows LU's usual contempt for safety when it comes to keeping service running during a dispute. How can a CSA be trained in one day? Let's just hope there are no runaway trains or fires when these are the only staff on duty. But staff have hardly flocked to take up these opportunities. TSSA have advised all their members in Broadway with emergency CSA licences not to volunteer. Admin staff recognise that this is not part of their job too.
All signs point towards a very solid strike with vibrant picket lines across the capital.
Public mood is potentially on our side, with 80% polled on London Travelwatch saying they would support ticket offices open throughout the traffic day. London Underground will face a lot of hostility from the public for what they are trying to do to a service they value. A solid strike will accentuate existing political pressure to scrap these cuts. The majority of GLA representatives are against them, the public are against them. Our strike will show we are against them. We can win!
As there is every possibility we can win this, our unions' negotiators should not go into talks underestimating feeling on the ground and looking for a compromise deal. The feeling is firm: this is about staffing levels, not redundancy terms. It is about WHETHER, not HOW the job cuts are made. There would be a feeling of vast betrayal if this dispute was twisted into negotiations on terms of voluntary severance, especially if there was any sign of backing down before the battle has even begun.