Station closures have been reported at Liverpool Street and Walthamstow Central in the last few days, with further reports of other stations, such as Warren Street, only being kept open through desperate manoeuvres by managers.
The reason? Union members across the combine upholding the overtime ban we've put in place to keep the pressure on the bosses between strike days.
A successful OT ban is essential for winning this dispute. While none of us relish the prospect of inconveniencing our passengers, closures, delays, engineering backlogs, and lost revenue are often the only languages the company understands.
Stations closing, or engineering work going undone, because of an OT ban reminds our employers, and indeed the wider world, of one inconvenient truth: that, far from Tube workers being lazy shirkers, swathes of the network are only made to function because of the goodwill of workers who volunteer to work outside their contracted hours. The fact is that there aren't enough staff on the Tube to run it properly, so the bosses rely on overtime. It's time to stop doing them favours.
While we understand why some colleagues resort to overtime to make ends meet, we believe that working OT (at any point, really, but especially during a dispute) lets bosses off the hook. They should fill vacancies and staff the network properly!
This OT ban shouldn't be seen as an optional extra. Upholding the ban is just as important as not coming to work on a strike day.
