LU have published the first official "Night Tube" map, with some proposed timetable details too. It's surely no coincidence that they've done this days before RMT returns its ballot for strikes.
The narrative Boris Johnson, via our bosses, is trying to establish is clear: Look at this wonderful gift I'm giving you - and those pesky unions want to ruin it!
We have to be equally clear: our current dispute is not a dispute "against" Night Tube. Different members of staff have different feelings about the prospect of 24-hour running, but none of the Tube unions have taken a position against it.
Tubeworker's view is that public transport is a pretty good thing, and that having more of it, more of the time, is a pretty good thing too. We don't want to stop the introduction of Night Tube, we just want to make sure it happens on our terms: properly staffed, to ensure safety for passengers and workers, and with a negotiated settlement, agreed at company-wide level, that ensures we are properly compensated for any increase in night working and anti-social rosters, both financially and in terms of more time off work to protect our health and work/life balance.
At the moment, the company is behaving unilaterally, making public announcements without consulting unions and attempting to bulldoze Night Tube through on their terms without any agreements in place about how it will be staffed.
Many of us suspect more than a bit of tension behind the scenes, as LU managers scurry around to keep up with Boris's ego. He wants Night Tube in place before the end of his mayoralty so it can act as his legacy, and has obviously told LU they have to deliver it. Faced with a race against time, it suits the company to portray us, the workers, as selfishly blocking or sabotaging Night Tube. If they had conducted serious, company-wide negotiations to get a staffing arrangement for Night Tube in place, and agreed a timetable for its implementation with unions on that basis, we might very well not be in the position.
As it is, we have to stand firm in the face of inevitable (company-fuelled) media slanders and attempts to turn the public against us. We should remind our passengers that an understaffed 24-hour service, where workers face anti-social rosters and increased stress and fatigue, will not be a pleasant or safe environment in which to travel.
If our strikes force the company to delay the introduction of Night Tube, so be it. We will not accept attacks on our terms and conditions, which will in turn have a detrimental impact on the service we're able to provide, just to satisfy Boris Johnson's vanity.
