Workers' Liberty

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?

It seems that on Green Park group, management have added an extra stage to the attendance/discipline procedure. Now, you have a 'fact-finding interview' before being sent to an LDI.

Management have a handy hint for ticket sellers. If someone asks for a quid's credit to be added to their Oyster card and tenders a twenty pound note, ask them "Are you sure you wouldn't like more credit than that?".

Management have had a bright idea - you know, one of those that involves compromising safety in order to keep the service running and the cash coming in.

Drivers at Bollo House (Acton Town) have had enough of the management regime in their depot and have asked RMT to ballot them for strike action.

At Earls Court control centre, management have introduced 'corrective action plans'. A member of staff gets so many 'items' and they are hauled off by a manager to 'agree' and implement a plan.

It seems that staff destined for the Heathrow Terminal 5 are to be trained at Queen's Park station in detrainments.

We know it's London Fashion Week soon, but this is going a bit far ...

In Heathrow management's latest wheeze, they want staff to wear a sash emblazoned 'Oyster Help' on the gateline!

One of the (many) problems with the way Oyster is set up is that when visitors leave the country, they often miss out on claiming back their £3 deposit or unused pre-pay because they can't find an open ticket office with a short enough queue to make it worthwhile cashing in their chips.

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

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.

Piccadilly line drivers are getting well naffed off with the regime on the line following the recent-ish arrival of a new performance manager.

One driver's employment was terminated after less than two months off sick. Another was sacked - upheld on appeal - following a driving error which was serious but no more serious than errors made by other drivers who were not sacked. And when a manager complained about another manager threatening him, both of them were sacked!

Management's plan to more-than-decimate our ticket offices continues apace. And there is a real mood amongst rank-and-file workers to fight back against it. Passengers too. A petition put together by staff at Boston Manor has already gathered more than 2,000 signatures. Repeat this across the stations and we would be well on our way to building the momentum we need to stop these cuts.

As contractor YJL started work on the floor removal at Bounds Green, station staff were shocked to find their lockers chucked into the back yard, rather than in the promised Portakabin. The lockers were covered by only an unsecured thin nylon tarp, leaving staff to retrieve their uniform in the dark.

When LUL won 'train operator of the year', management inserted their short arms into their deep pockets and fished out £20 per staff member for a bit of a do.

Tubeworker hears that these dos have been somewhat patchy across the job. But spare a thought for poor old Arnos Grove group, who amidst a change of local management, missed the deadline altogether.

Cockfosters suffered staffing cuts when the shorter working week came in - although a concerted fight by local union activists meant they were much less severe than originally proposed.

But the effects of the cuts have now been made much worse by management inadequacy. A few examples: SAMF duties left uncovered; Supervisors working alone for hours on end; ticket machine queues stretching across the ticket hall and beyond; gents public/staff toilets closed for a week without advice to customers or staff; temporary male toilets provided, but no posters to inform drivers; car park exit blocked by refurb but again no posters to advise passengers.

Only the other week, Tubeworker was pointing out that the new Northern line timetable is causing constant late running. It seems that the Picc has the same trouble.

So you thought that the Rule Book was, er, a book of rules that you have to follow? We thought so too, but it seems that we might have been wrong.

Apparently, a Rostered Duty Officer (a what?) can bend the rules if s/he carries out a "dynamic risk assessment" in "real time". At least, that's the explanation that management finally came up with to justify an incident ealier this year when a faulty Picc line train was propelled from the rear with no direct communication between the people at the rear and at the front.

It's another unfair sacking, and once again Tube workers have to rally to the defence of a workmate.

Beware working in the Ticket Hall at Bounds Green. There's some refurb work going on at the moment, and tiles have been removed from the walls leaving dusty brickwork exposed, without any covering.

Management still have their heads in the sand over the cracked wheel sets on the Piccadilly line. They've had the whole fleet checked now, but don't seem to think there is a need to check them again in the foreseeable future.

The Piccadilly line fleet has a serious problem with cracks on wheel sets. On Wednesday (20th September), a driver reported a bang beneath his train. Although this was the first that drivers knew of it, it seems that management have been aware of this problem for more like ten days.

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.

You know how keen management are to reduce SPADs? Very, when it comes to cracking down on drivers. Less so when it comes to taking action themselves.

The Picc Line’s SPAD group addresses issues such as signal sighting. It’s supposed to meet monthly – but has only just had its first meeting since May!

Chaos at the top end of the Piccadilly Line last weekend, with Cockfosters to Arnos Grove closed for engineering work. Nothing unusual there, you might think, but some bright spark decided to schedule the closure for the date of the first-ever match at Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium. Result: lots of upset footie fans.

Finsbury Park closed today when station staff refused to work on safety grounds.

A local union safety rep was shocked to find that contractors had isolated fire detection devices in secure rooms without taking the steps in their Method Statement to ensure safety. So staff refused to work, and the problem was swiftly rectified. But quite rightly, station staff were not prepared to work with the Project Manager who had authorised this reckless risk-taking, and things stood at a deadlock until his booking-off time of 19:00.

Alex Ansah, for many years the night cleaner at Caledonian Road and also an RMT representative, has been forced to move work locations. Why? Because he stood up to a Tubelines Manager, who was trying to intimidate him into using unsafe working practices. We want Alex back at Caledonian Road and we want the Tubelines Manager dealt with.

A couple of weeks ago on a Saturday night, a reserve Supervisor on duty at Turnpike Lane carried out the OLBI tests when ... bang! He got a jolt that threw him backwards and gave him a headache.

Management are "investigating", but until we all see some proof that this kit is safe, then you'd be taking a big risk by touching it. So don't.

The sunlight PTI problem is made even worse when management cut staffing levels at the station concerned. Under the recent re-rostering, Oakwood lost a CSA, and the Supervisor became MF, so has to spend a chunk of time in the Ticket Office. Hence - the station is desperately short of staff to do sunlight platform duties.