Workers' Liberty

Yesterday evening, management's failure to fix the Northern line train radio led to the Edgware branch being suspended.

You know that medical advice that you are not supposed to move someone who has a serious injury or health problem?

Following the Euston refurb, there is a new control room, where the Control Room Assistant sits on their own with the monitors and service information, and a new, separate Supervisors' office, where the Supervisors sit.

Female staff at Euston have been kicked out of their female toilets to make way for the men while the male toilets are refurbished.

Remember dynamic risk assessments? That's where management - in the person of a Rostered Duty Officer - can make an on-the-spot decision to assess that a particular procedure is 'safe' even if it's against the rules.

Wide Aisle Gates (WAGs) were recently been installed at Euston.

In a recent one-under at West Finchley, the driver was understandably too traumatised to do anything.

When CCTV cameras fail - as recently at Euston - the procedure seems to be that staff are positioned in all areas of the station regardless.

It seems that on the Northern line, TOMs are using their power to decide what is a one-under and what is a near miss.

Management have again been covering stations without a station supervisor.

RMT has called off its strike dates in defence of Sarah Appleby.

Following LUL's sacking of DMT Sarah Appleby, RMT members at Morden depot have voted for strike action.

At Tottenham Court Road, staff working to cover the all-night opening of the Tube on New Year's Eve were not exactly rewarded with appreciation from their managers.

A CSA at Euston station was standing on the gateline, when a ceiling tile landed on his head!

Drivers and duty managers at Morden depot are to ballot for strike action to demand that LUL reinstate Duty Manager Trains Sarah Appleby.

The litany of bizarre 'SPAD reduction' gimmicks continues unabated, with the Northern Line now getting in on the act. Apparently, management seriously believe that painting the lower part of trainstops red will help prevent drivers starting up against red signals.

ISS cleaners on the Northern line have been messed around for months.

Many have no fixed station, don't know where they'll be working from one day to the next. They are forced to work on stations where they haven't been familiarised. They are losing out on the stability (as well as opportunity to get organised!) that having a regular station would provide.

King's Cross station closed due to overcrowding in the middle of the evening rush hour on the night that Arsenal played Newcastle. Euston became packed with their traffic so had to close as well.

Cleaners at Morden depot have prevented their management imposing anti-social new rosters.

The cleaners' union reps did not agree to the new roster, but ISS went ahead and imposed it anyway. The cleaners refused to work it, and management threatened to send them home. But the cleaners stood their ground, and RMT activists from other grades turned up at the depot at their signing-on time to offer support.

Q: There is a poster in Euston station, saying, 'this passage has been closed due to the safe removal of asbestos'. When enquiring, we were assured there was nothing to worry about. But can we trust them?

A: There are two types of work which deal with asbestos: complete removal, where the material is removed from the structure and disposed of; and encapsulation, where the asbestos is treated and completely sealed.

Just when we were being encouraged to believe that there is nothing wrong with PPP as a concept, just that Metronet are a particularly dodgy company, along comes a reminder that Tubelines, also, are capable of fouling things up.

Dear Tubeworker

At Angel station, a Station Supervisor accused a cleaner of neglecting their duties. The cleaner got an RMT rep, who proved that there was little basis for his allegations.

Now, the next time the cleaner goes in with the union to see management, it will not be a disciplinary hearing against the cleaner, but an investigation into whether the supervisor harassed the cleaner.

While staff dealt with the effects of the heavy downpour a couple of weeks back, the GSM showed up at Golders Green station. Great - some people would say that managers never show up when the proverbial hits the fan, but Tubeworker won't have a bar of it.

When a flashing light that informs drivers of a temporary speed restriction between Euston and Kings Cross stopped working, Euston station initially tried to inform drivers via the service information board near the driver's cab.

We were recently telling you about under-staffing causing problems with getting drivers re-licensed. Seems this affects other grades too.

Out on the Barkingside group, managers have been trying it on with staff, telling them that the company has "done away with" the requirement for 28 days' notice of ATOR and claiming that now you only need 5 days'.

A TubeLines Site Person in Charge accepted a forged Permit to Enter to a machine chamber at Old Street. The Station Supervisor picked up on it, and the unauthorised person left the station, but TubeLines did not query their procedures on how this had come about.

The local RMT and ASLEF reps at East Finchley depot have produced a joint leaflet telling drivers about Driving Parameters and their rights at work. This follows a joint newsletter produced by the two union reps last year.

A Northern Line DMT on a driving day had an aggravated SPAD. He got a 12-month suspended sacking - but was returned to work at his own depot!

How can he have any credibility dealing with drivers ov

The tragic death of a Northern line driver highlights the important problem of spurious OPO alarms.

The OPO alarm is a crucial warning to the controller that something may have happened to a driver