Workers' Liberty

LUL is determined to press ahead with its ticket offices cuts and closures, despite the devastating effect on both customer service and our working conditions. Staff at many stations will now have seen that their station is in the firing line and will know that we need to fight off this attack. If your station is not on the list, then don't go breathing a sigh of relief - you will pick up the workload from the closed offices at other stations, and yours could well be in the next wave of closures that will inevitably follow this one.

More and more details of the implications of management's plan are filtering out. They are talking about returning to the days of SAs collecting excess fares on the gateline, and introducing roving MF-licensed staff who go from one station to the next servicing machines.

Meanwhile, various station refurb plans - for example at Perivale and South Ruislip - include physically getting rid of the ticket office.

There were 1,800 assaults last year; 1,200 in the ticket hall; 800 ticket-related. But LUL seems unable to draw the obvious conclusion from this alarming statistic - that passengers frustrated by the ticketing system can turn violent, and staff get hurt.

Management has a timetable for swinging its axe:

• April-May: "consultation" - obviously we missed that!

• June-October: "local consultation" - that's where they try to co-opt your union reps into helping cut your job - the reps should not have a bar of it
• November-December: "transfer planning" - that's where they decide your future, moving you about like a pawn on a chessboard
• January-February: "transfer information and appeals" - then they get round to telling you where you're going, and letting you go through the motions of begging them not to
• March 2nd: "implementation" - bye bye ticket offices

We need our own timetable to resist - starting with getting out round the workplaces telling everyone about the issue and how the unions intend to fight it. This must involve all grades, not just station staff. We should be able to explain to drivers, for instance, that if LUL thinks it can sell tickets without ticket sellers, it is only a matter of time before it decides it can operate trains without train operators. We also need to take the campaign to the public, and to prepare for strike action if necessary.

But so far, the unions have not shown much sign of a strategy. TSSA's 'strategy' seems to amount to ... asking management questions. Radical. As for the RMT, it is only since the recent Regional Council passed a detailed resolution that it has appeared to now have a plan. The resolution is:

This Regional Council fully commits itself to fight LUL’s threatened closures of ticket offices and loss of SAMF positions. We agree to:

· support and resource the monthly Station Grades meetings.

· approach TSSA for a joint campaign, but not let their unwillingness to take action hold us back.

· produce a leaflet outlining the issues and arguments, and explaining what members can do.

· produce leaflets aimed at drivers, service control, RCIs, admin etc explaining why they should oppose these cuts and urging solidarity with station staff.

· produce a series of petitions - ‘Drivers Against Ticket Office Closures’ etc - for each grade.

· promote the online petition; produce a printed petition.

· produce a leaflet for the public; organise leafleting/petitioning sessions outside stations.

· produce protest stickers.

· hold protests at eg. company council meetings, the Mayor’s office etc.

We ask our Stations & Revenue Council reps to:

· find out as soon as possible the detail of the closure plans, and circulate this information as it becomes available.

· send out a weekly email update on developments and campaign plans, and fortnightly printed updates, throughout this campaign.

We further believe that we will need industrial action to defeat this attack. We need to be ready to do this BEFORE the first ticket office closes.