Workers' Liberty

Unions have slowed London Underground’s drive to casualise its workforce -but by avoiding mistakes, they could have stopped it.

London Underground has sacked a worker at London Bridge over an alleged incident with a customer. But the company’s only “evidence” against Gyles is the say-so of a different customer who admitted there was no violence involved, but speculated that there might have been! RMT is balloting members for industrial action. Vote Yes! More: www.workersliberty.org/tube.

Rail workers know that our employers will risk life and limb (ours, not theirs!) to keep the trains running and the cash coming in. We can not trust them to protect us at work - we have to rely on ourselves.

By Sofie Buckland

Sunday 1 July saw the introduction of the controversial “smoking ban”, outlawing smoking in “enclosed public spaces” (train station platforms as well as buildings, for example) and workplaces. As a smoker it’s a little irritating to no longer be able to enjoy a smoke with a pint, but there’s little justification socialists can give for not supporting a ban — passive smoking is really quite obviously harmful, whatever the tobacco company sponsored research might say, and workers shouldn’t be subject to it on the job.

The fire regulations for sub-surface stations (enacted under Section 12 of the Fire Precautions Act 1971) came from the Fennell report into the King’s Cross Fire. New rules helped to ensure the safety of our passengers, staff and emergency services.

On 2nd February, two young men died and another was injured when their car collided with a train at an open level crossing at Delny. A couple of weeks later saw the third anniversary of the death of four track workers at Tebay - for which two sub-contractors have been jailed.

Oh yes it is! At least according to a leaflet sponsored by TfL.

Medicine? Rest? Recovery? Pah - they're for wimps! A hard day's graft is what you sickly types need.

Please sign this petition against the government's attempts to weaken fire safety standards in underground railway stations.

As petition creator - RMT activist Kebba Jobe - explains, "Following the 1987 Kings Cross Fire which claimed the lives of 31 people the Fire Precautions (Sub Surface Railways) Regulations were enacted under the Fire Precautions Act.

By Jack Haslam

Two people were killed and up to 60 injured when a National Express coach crashed on a slip road linking the M4 and M25 last Wednesday night (January 3).

Our sympathies go out to the families and friends of the dead and injured.

A contractor has gone to jail for killing four track workers at Tebay in February 2004 through deliberate tampering to save money. But the root causes of the tragedy are still in place.

Mark Connolly, boss of MAC Machinery Services, got 9 years. He had disconnected the brakes on two wagons because the hydraulic systems were knackered and he would not spend the money to fix them. He tried to cover his tracks by filling cables with ball bearings to seem like brake fluid.

The Hazards Campaign, the trade union based health and safety watchdog, addressed a series of twenty freedom of information questions to the Health and Safety Executive at the beginning of this year. What they found is worrying.

Tubeworker of 18 October 2005 reports on how trade-union unity and workers' direct action protected safety on the Northern Line. Also: fare increases; Pakistan earthquake; Metronet dispute; new "shorter working week" rosters on stations; code red and code amber; service control review; gates on unstaffed stations; train radios; Picc line closures; tunnel telephones; Friday working; Picc line SPADs; Cockfosters. Download here!

Called by RMT

By Paul Hampton

Four people died and more than 100 were injured in the rail crash at Hatfield in 17 October 2000. This year Railtrack, the company responsible for the network and Balfour Beatty, responsible for track maintenance and their top executives - have been up in court for corporate manslaughter and other safety breaches. Last month they got off the manslaughter charges.

Following the seven deaths at Ufton Nervet, the last issue of OTR looked in depth at the issue of level crossing safety.

Sad to say, we have to report that on 30th June, a teenager was killed, and his five friends injured, when a train dragged their car 100m along the track at Rawcliffe Bridge, near Goole.

Lorry driver trade unionists from across Europe, who held a conference in Eastbourne on 6 May, had a steering group meeting in Malmö, Sweden, in early June.

By Pat Yarker

A sixteen-year old schoolboy pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey this month to raping his teacher in her classroom at a south London school. He was 15 years old at the time of the assault in September 2004.

In 2003 there were 235 deaths and nearly 160,000 non-fatal injuries from accidents in UK workplaces. Deaths from asbestos are likely to reach 150,000 over the next 30 years.

The High Court has banned industrial action by guards on Midland Mainline, in a case which shows the blatant class bias of Britain's anti-union laws.

Unsafe

Midland Mainline operates multiple-unit trains, which have no connecting door. This effectively divides the train into two halves. Guards and their union, RMT, believe that there should therefore be a guard in each part of the train.

The driver was amongst the seven people killed at the level crossing crash at Ufton Nervet on 6 November (pictured).

The rail industry and the government were relieved that there was an individual they could blame, as the crash was caused by a suicidal man deliberately parking his car on the crossing. And the scale of the disaster would not have been so bad if it were not for the highly-unusual circumstance of the train dragging the car onto the next set of points, causing the derailment.

Heard the one about the rail companies which think they are actually medical practices? C2C and TubeLines are the latest employers to turn the screw on sick staff.

They want to bring in a system under which you phone in sick, only to be interrogated not just by a manager, but by a nurse as well. Rumours that they pop round your house to stick a thermometer under your tongue (or anywhere else) are completely untrue - at this point, anyway.

By Janine Booth, Finsbury Park branch RMT chairperson (personal capacity)

The High Court has banned industrial action by train guards on Midland Mainline, in a case which shows the blatant class bias of Britain’s anti-union laws.

Tubeworker of 14/11/04 welcomes the concessions won by RMT negotiators for station staff on the shorter working week, but argues for a fight to improve the offer. Also: the US presidential election; station refurbishments; the Ufton Nervet crash.

To read the front page text, click 'read more'. Download the front page here and back page here.

At Tebay last February, four track workers were killed by a runaway trailer from a badly-maintained road-rail vehicle (RRV). At Hednesford in September, two workers were killed riding on a RRV. Other incidents - including at Stockport, Hayle in Cornwall, and Shieldmuir near Motherwell - have seen injuries or near misses. These 'accidents' will inevitably be followed by others as long as the engineering companies are allowed to put profit before lives.

• Chris Barrett

• Derailment
• Pay action

Chris Barrett

Last year tube driver Chris Barrett hit the headlines when he was sacked from London Underground after they filmed him visiting a squash court while he was off work with an ankle injury. His doctor backed him up, saying the exercise for appropriate treatment for his recovery. London Underground went ahead and dismissed him. The background to the sacking is the employer's policy of tailing and videoing one in three workers on long-term sick leave!

The RMT have gained information indicating that there were no less than five contractors operating at the Scout Green access point on Sunday morning, the site of the accident which killed four railworkers. They were Carillon, MDA Rail, Macrail, McGinley's and Jarvis. They also say that the trolley which killed the men was on the main line and not on a sidings and was detached from a road-rail crane to enable the crane to unload it.

London Underground workers are due to take industrial action on 9-10 December over safety on the Tube and privatisation of its infrastructure.

The biggest Tube union, the RMT, is demanding 24-hourly inspection of all Tube track; immediate introduction of speed restrictions wherever track defects are discovered; and all track, signalling and rolling-stock maintenance work to be carried out by qualified London Underground employees.

• Heathrow hit by a 48-hour strike
• Vote yes! Strike for safety on the Tube!
• Remote sourcing - No to job losses! Yes to international trade union links

Vote yes! Strike for safety on the Tube!

After two derailments in two days, Tubeworker urges workers and the unions to push forward their fight for safety and to bring back the Tube's maintenance into the public sector.

Workplace stories include the fight to save Chris Barrett's job, the sham terrorist exercise at Bank, and the election for RMT President.

Download pdf.

Last weekend saw two shocking derailments on London Underground. On Friday evening, a Piccadilly line train derailed just outside Baron's Court station; on Sunday morning, several people were injured - at least one seriously - when a Northern line train came off the rails in a tunnel at Camden Town. Both seem to be the fault of poor track condition; both can almost certainly be blamed on the privatisation of the Tube's infrastructure.