Under pressure from united and solid action, and increasingly desperate, Bakerloo line management have come up with a proposal that would be laughable were its implications not so dangerous: private security guards on the trains.
Yes, they want to put hired muscle on the trains to 'protect' drivers should an overcarried passenger get a bit tasty. If that is the best they can do, it's little wonder they sent the letter over to ASLEF and RMT after close of play on Friday evening.
Not only would this take the Bakerloo situation out of the frying pan and into the fire, it is also a threat to every Tube worker in every grade. LUL would like nothing more than to whittle down its workforce to a core group of staff, supplemented by squads hired from agencies or fly-by-night contractors to fill in the gaps. Security guards in the Bakerloo sidings today means security guards on other lines' trains and stations tomorrow. And that means casualised, low-paid insecure labour in place of decent jobs.
We'd like to assume that neither union will give this ludicrous proposal the time of day, and that Bakerloo drivers will see it for what it is: a last, desperate throw of the dice from a management whose only remaining option is to give in to our demands for safe detrainment by proper station staff. Keep up the action, hold the line - and if management don't withdraw this nonsense, then every worker in every grade needs to be ready to act.
