Our unions need to hold the demand for 'no job cuts'.
LU says 450 people have applied for VS (a minority of the 3400 eligible applicants). But if 450 go voluntarily, that still means 450 fewer people working on the stations. If LU gets away with its cuts, and you end up working alone on the gateline, you won't be comforted by the fact that your ex colleagues went 'voluntarily'. You'll be thinking about how you've got too much work for too few staff and no promotion opportunities because the 450 VS applicants packed up and took 450 jobs with them.
VS applications must not coax unions into thinking there is an 'acceptable' level of 'voluntary' job cuts. That would open LU's floodgates. It would tell LU that all it needs to do is dangle some money in front of people; that unions will be guided by the number who want to take it; that by this method LU can easily cut thousands of engineers, signallers and drivers from future generations.
We need to hold out for no job cuts for the staff who want to stay behind, for all LU grades and for future generations.