LUL's latest bulletin makes the bizarre claim that that the company will pay TSSA and BTOG members this year's pay rise of 4%.
LUL is apparently accepting the principle that each individual worker should be paid the amount that his or her union has negotiated. So when RMT's industrial action secures a higher pay settlement, RMT members will get higher pay that TSSA and BTOG members! And TSSA and BTOG, having accepted the multi-year deal, will not be invited to any pay talks for the next three years.
And presumably, non-union members will never receive a pay rise again! Indeed, why not backdate this principle and take away from TSSA members all the extra pay rises down the years that RMT has won by striking when TSSA officials were ready and willing to accept less?! And perhaps the nons could languish on a quid a week, having received no annual increase since the First World War!
Of course this is all a nonsense. It is probably illegal for an employer to pay different pay rates to different staff according to which union they are in. But if it's not, then there's a great incentive to join whichever union can win you the most money each year - which is hardly likely to be TSSA or BTOG, is it?!
TSSA members may also reflect on how happy you are to see your union handing over your membership details to the company. If you pay by 'paybill deduction', so the company knows you're a member anyway, then how about you ask TSSA head office how much of their members' money they hand over to LUL each year for the 'privilege' of operating this system?
Fortunately, most staff can see this ridiculous gambit for the stunt that it is. LUL obviously hopes that there will be a stampede of RMT members joining up to the TSSA in order to get their pay rise - once again proving that the TSSA is management's union of choice.
When they see the ballot result on Monday, they will see that RMT members are determined to fight, not to give in to cheap ploys from a company whose 'strategy' is obviously in tatters.