An exchange with a reader...

Tubeworker recently received the following letter. We've written a reply below. What do you think?

Dear Tubeworker,

I am a CSA at a large LU station. I have just read your recent bulletin about taking further industrial action against the changes.

Well, myself and a number of my colleagues say NO. These changes as I see them are to get Supervisors off their backsides and working. We can have up to four Supervisors on duty at any one time, and the common conversation between myself and other CSAs is: "Why are they in the bloody office all day long? Why aren't they out here?"

You cite a 370% increase in "managers" under the new plans. Well, won't this be mostly taken from existing SSs? They always spout off about how they can run the stations better than DSMs and GSMs. Well now's their chance.

As for the ticket offices, yes - I can serve two or three customers at a POM at the time it takes a SAMF to serve one, as they are usually drinking tea or out the back!

As as CSA I want more responsibility, and so do my colleagues.

You dinosaurs need to get into the real, modern world. Why do you use Facebook to display your bulletins? Oh yes... it's "modern technology"! Pot, kettle, black?

Regards,
[Name given]

Well friend, you certainly seem very disgruntled.

We agree, and know from our own experience, that working on a big station where Supervisors see themselves as being above frontline work can be very frustrating. Of course, not all Supervisors are like this, by any means. They are NOT managers, and many are excellent trade unionists. But yes, there is a minority who see themselves as back-office managers rather than frontline staff, and it is not surprising that CSAs resent this. However, the "Fit for the Future - Stations" proposals will not fix this situation. They will make it worse, not better!

Supervisors are already subtly, and not so subtly, encouraged to see themselves as above CSAs, as part of management rather than the "shopfloor" workforce. How will "promoting" them to artificially-created management jobs encourage solidarity between CSAs and Supervisors?

As for SAMFs and SCRAs, our experience is that the vast majority are hard working colleagues. And your letter also glosses over the fact that many SAMFs and SCRAs, for a whole variety of reasons, including physical (dis)ability, are unable to stand on a gateline or platform for hours at a time. Deleting their jobs could result in many of them being thrown on the scrap heap. How's that for LUL's stated aim of making staff "more visible"? More visible on the dole queue, maybe, but not on our stations.

And finally, when it comes to "modern technology"... we don't oppose it! In fact we positively welcome any advance that makes transport better for passengers and makes our working lives easier. Our problem isn't with technology, it's with how it's used by bosses for whom profit, rather than quality of service or workers' rights, always comes first.

If elements of automation could be introduced in a way that was guaranteed not to detrimentally effect safety, quality of service, or workers' jobs, terms, and conditions, we'd have no problem with it. If we could automate ticket selling in a way that didn't disadvantage disabled or non-English speaking passengers, and didn't damage jobs, or negatively impact on any workers' pay, terms, and conditions, there'd be no issue. Our problem is not with "technology", it's with technology being used as a tool to make cuts rather than make our lives better.

We appeal to you and other CSAs in big stations (and, indeed, in all stations) to think seriously: how many times during the day do you have to refer confused and overwhelmed passengers, often tourists, to the ticket office, because there's a ticketing or Oyster issue you can't solve with a MOVie or on a POM? Now imagine the stress of dealing with those issues, during the peak, when the ticket office is gone. Even if you're superhuman and are able to serve four passengers on four separate POMs at once, do you really think it's not going to make the CSA role massively more stressful and exhausting having to do that for hours at a time, when there's been a massive net reduction of frontline staff?

These cuts will make everything that's currently difficult about the job harder, and nothing easier. If you care about the future of your work and the quality of the service we provide to the travelling public, you should oppose them.

See you on the picket lines!