Tubeworker's blog

Tubeworker: a platform
for rank-and-file workers, telling you what the bosses and bureaucrats won't.

Since the '80s, Tubeworker has been a printed bulletin distributed among London Underground workers. Download printed issues here.

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Tunnel Vision

- a Workers' Liberty pamphlet about London Underground's Public-Private Partnership and
the fight against it.

Read it here. Buy it here.


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Staffing Levels

Resisting management's attempts to cut staffing levels


Detrainment dispute 2007-08

Detrainment staff on the Bakerloo line fighting LUL's attempts to impose lone working.


Stations 35-Hour Week 2004-6

The struggle for the long-awaited 35-hour week for station staff, and how the unions failed to stop it bringing staffing cuts with it.


Wot No CSAs?

Piccadilly line

Remember that dispute about the staffing of Heathrow Terminal 5? Remember how the threat of industrial action by RMT and TSSA forced management to stick some CSAs there as well as a Supervisor?


Uncovered Duties

Bakerloo Line

Duty sheets at Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus are showing loads of duties unfilled.


Alone On The Gateline

District line

Like most stations, Embankment was just about struggling by with the skeleton staffing levels it was left with in the wake of the 35-hour week: in the peak, two CSAs on the gateline, one on each of two platforms.


Wot no Station Supervisor?

Bakerloo Line

The ink is not dry on the stations agreement with management and they start their old tricks again.


Mind The Automatic Doors, Please

LT Health & safety

The new 09 stock on the Victoria line is a fully automated train with fully automated door opening and closing.


Defend Round-The-Clock Station Supervision

Silverlink transfer

The unions have stopped industrial action for a document from management which – although it is not nearly so bad as management’s earlier proposals – does dent the principle of 24/7 station supervision. It states that eight of the stations transferred from Silverlink will have supervisors on duty in traffic hours only. Tubeworker has already commented on the need to defend round-the-clock supervision (in the second half of this article), but we want to add some further points.


Watch Out For The WAGs

Fares and Ticketing

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


Wot No BNS?

Silverlink transfer

Management were supposed to produce the Business Needs Schematics for the ex-Silverlink stations months ago. Then weeks ago. Then last week. But still ... Nothing.


Drivers Need Station Staff!

Northern line

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


Wot No Supervisor?

District line

Management have again been covering stations without a station supervisor.


Queen's Park: Wot No Staff?

Bakerloo Line

LUL is very proud of its new acquisitions from Silverlink. Shame it doesn't put the effort in.


Alone On The Platform

District line

Elm Park has had a bit of trouble with its OPO equipment, meaning that the platform had to be staffed to give drivers the right (or 'assisted despatch' as we are all supposed to call in now).


Diluting Minimum Staffing

LT Health & safety

There has been a sudden and myseterious change to Section 4.2 of every Section 12 station's Emergency Plan. That's the clause that tells you your minimum staffing numbers, below which you can not open the station.


Extra SATS, no extra staff

Staffing Levels

For the busiest two weeks of the year, in the run-up to Xmas, management introduced SATS on extra platforms, and extended the SATS times by 1.5 hours.


West Brompton: More Responsibilities -> More Staff!

District line

West Brompton station inherited two platforms and a lift from Silverlink. Management said this would make precious little difference to the station, and would certainly not require any extra staff or an uprating of West Brompton, which is one of the few remaining SS3 stations.


Terminal Problem

Piccadilly line

Heathrow Terminal 5 station will open next year, served by both Heathrow Express and our very own Piccadilly line.


Agency Staff Keep Popping Up

Piccadilly line

Agency staff are starting to appear in places other than the transferring Silverlink stations.

LUL have declared their intention to use them for special events - making us wonder what happened to the 'special events team' that was part of the much-lamented stations shorter working week deal.


Delayed Take-Off

Piccadilly line

Chaos on the Picc yesterday, when a couple of hours' suspension in the early afternoon led to delays well late into the evening, no thanks to management's refusal to implement an emergency timetable.


Watch Out: It's The WAGs!

Staffing Levels

Not the footballers' Wives And Girlfriends, but Wide Aisle Gates. They are like Manual Gates, but with a motor rather than a member of staff.


West Brompton: More Staff Please

District line

As part of the impending Silverlink transfer, LUL stations Highbury & Islington, Blackhorse Road and West Brompton are to take on responsibility for the Silverlink platforms. Obviously, then, additional responsibilities would entail extra work, extra insepctions, extra fault reporting - and, you'd think, extra staff, and perhaps a notch-up of the station's complexity rating (giving a pay rise to the Supervisors).


Station Supervisors: How Safe Is Your Job?

Metropolitan line

Tubeworker warned earlier this year that Station Supervisors' jobs were under threat, as the new Rule Books stripped the grade of many of its responsibilities.


Own Goal

District line

Tubeworker has reported previously about the staffing levels crisis on the east end of the District line.

This really hit rock bottom on Saturday 4th August, when West Ham United played Roma and the station was left woefully understaffed.


Staff vs Info Boards

LT Health & safety

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.


Rushing Through Re-Licensing

Central line

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'.


How the new Rule Book threatens stations jobs

Rule Book

Under the new Rule Book, Station Supervisors lose the following responsiblities:


How Secure Are You?

Central line

During refurb work at Epping, Metronet has employed a security guard to protect its worksite. But the guard has been getting rather too close to the ticket barrier, on occasion looking like a substitute member of station staff.


On The Cheap

Promotion

Station staff will have noticed that management struggle to cover posts over a long period - eg. during maternity leave or long-term sickness. Obviously, then, they need to employ more reserves.

Well, you'd think it's obvious, wouldn't you? But management have another plan, which will save them a considerable amount of dosh - at your expense. They want to have a group of staff who hold licences above their grade, then step them up for several months to cover the uncovered post, only to send them back to their lower grade.


Not Enough Staff = Not Enough Safety

Central line

Last night at Bank, call point operation triggered an evacuation ... and the P.A. failed. No Inspector Sands, no P.A. from the control room, nothing.

With superhuman effort, the staff evacuated the complex in twenty minutes. Fortunately, it was a false alarm. Had it been a fire, people would have died.


Action Against Cuts

Piccadilly line

Staff on Green Park group are organising for an official overtime ban because staffing cuts have made the situation so unbearable. Everyone should make sure they are in the RMT, vote Yes in the ballot, and make the action effective.


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