Workers' Liberty

What do you get for working faster and harder than you need to? The sack - if you're on the GrantRail/TrackWork contract with TubeLines, that is.

They were working to a 7-and-a-half year contract, but it was subject to annual review, and was completed in 3-and-a-half years. So, in the brave new world of Public-Private Partnerships and sub-contracting, up to 70 workers may get not a bonus or a Thanks To You, but a P45.

RMT has demanded that no new contractors are taken on while workers facing redundancy could do the work instead. But while GrantRail has indicated it is willing to agree to this, TubeLines has not. So skilled, experienced workers - some of whom have worked on the Tube for 15 years - face losing their jobs while new, inexperienced contract labour is taken on instead.

Rank-and-file union reps have been fighting hard, and successfully, to unionise contract workers. But situations like this throw them into a vicious circle - getting workers organised, improving their pay and conditions, only to see them kicked out and replaced by cheaper workers.

To break this cycle, the union must take immediate, decisive action against these redundancies. So far, rank-and-file reps have been disappointed by an apparently sluggish response from head office. Hopefully, pressure from members and reps will give them the necessary kick up the backside.