Tubeworker's blog

Aslef renews mandate... will it finally use it?!

Aslef has renewed its industrial action mandate on London Underground... again. It achieved an extremely impressive 99% vote for strikes on a 77% turnout amongst its 1,577 driver members on the Tube.

At this stage, Aslef has had a mandate for industrial action on LU for just shy of three years, and...

Overtime bans spread on stations

Station staff on the Jubilee Centre and Jubilee South cover groups will launch an overtime ban from 12-25 March as the fight against staffing cuts on stations continues. They follow station staff on the District Centre, Bakerloo South, and Victoria South groups in taking this action.

Overtime bans...

Station closures continue

As LUL’s job cuts programme continues across stations, we’re seeing the consequences of understaffing as stations continue to close due to lack of staff.

Goodge Street and Mornington Crescent closed on 13 February; on Sunday 12 February, Chancery Lane, Goodge Street, Hyde Park Corner, and Covent...

Drivers: vote yes for strikes to defend detrainment duties

RMT is balloting driver members on the Bakerloo, Central, District, Hammersmith and City, and Jubilee lines for strikes to resist the removal of detrainment duties at terminating stations.

We've covered this issue extensively - see some of our previous coverage here and here.

Action is absolutely...

Online meeting, 16 February, 3pm: Earthquake relief and international workers' solidarity, with UID-DER, Turkey (Uluslararası Işçi Dayanışması Derneği, Association of International Workers Solidarity)

Thursday 16 February, 15:00-17:00

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89802934171?pwd=NEh5MzJzTWp0eWptSE9WaDA1NlhOdz09

Facebook event here.


Tens of thousands of people have been killed following a massive earthquake on the Turkey-Syria border. In the wake of this tragedy and unfolding...

As cleaners’ travel pass win reconfirmed, organise to fight for more!

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has reconfirmed that outsourced cleaners across Transport for London will receive staff travel passes from April.

Winning staff travel passes for cleaners and other outsourced workers has been a major campaign demand of RMT for many years. There is no doubt the...

TfL workers: vote yes for action on pay!

RMT members at Transport for London are balloting for industrial action to win a decent settlement on pay and conditions. The ballot opens on 31 January, and runs until 21 February. Tubeworker encourages all readers at TfL to vote yes!

(As there’s sometimes some confusion about this, and especially...

Latest edition of Tubeworker bulletin now online!

Every month, we collate content from our blog into a printed bulletin, which is distributed in workplaces across London Underground.

The latest edition is now online. Check it out here. You can read previous editions of the bulletin here.

No complacency as pension deadline pushed back...

TfL announced that the deadline for the next phase of the pension reform process has been pushed back to 28 February.

This is the phase in which TfL has to pick a preferred option for reform, before going on to publish an implementation plan for the reform. Although “no change” is technically still...

Don't delay on pay!

Our current settlement on pay and conditions on LUL is due to expire in April. We need to get out on the front foot in the fight for a new one.

We shouldn't accept anything less than an above-inflation increase (anything else is a pay cut!), and we should demand a flat-rate floor so lower-paid...

Northern line fleet workers vote for action

Fleet maintenance workers at Golders Green and Morden depots on the Northern line have voted by a 92% majority for strikes, and by a 94% majority for action short of strikes, in their dispute to win a decent pay settlement. 66% of eligible members voted in the RMT ballot.

Unlike most fleet...

Detrainment fight is opportunity to build unity

LUL management want to scrap manual detrainment so that they can cut station staff jobs. It would mean rather than a CSA or train op checking each carriage is empty before going into a siding, the train op makes an announcement, flashes the lights, and hopes for the best.

A recent management...

Aslef calls strikes on Bakerloo line

Aslef has called strikes on the Bakerloo line on 4 and 11 February, after drivers voted 99% in favour of industrial action short of strikes, and 95% in favour of strikes, on an 80% turnout. The dispute is over LUL’s plan to remove detrainment duties from Bakerloo line platform, which involve station...

Mass strike on 1 February: why aren’t we joining it?

1 February 2023 will be the biggest strike since 2011, when two million workers struck against cuts to public sector pensions. Civil servants, teachers, university workers, mainline train drivers, and others will be striking. With both RMT and Aslef on London Underground having recently renewed...

LUL dispute: we have to escalate to win

London Underground is imposing job cuts on stations, and lining up cuts on trains via a major restructure that could change drivers' working arrangements and impose cross-depot working. Vacancies are being held in engineering and fleet depots, as a prelude to job cuts. And the company remains...

New edition of Tubeworker bulletin now online!

As well as our regularly-updated blog, Tubeworker also produces a monthly bulletin, collating content from the blog, workplace stories, and articles about wider and international issues.

The latest edition is now online. Check it out here.

You can read all previous issues of the bulletin here. As...

Outsourced workers on the DLR to strike

Outsourced cleaning and security staff employed by ISS on the Docklands Light Railway will strike on 30 and 31 December, demanding improved pay and conditions.

The second day of the strike sees them strike alongside over 1,000 other outsourced cleaning workers on mainline train operating companies...

Boxing Day blues again...

Another Boxing Day has passed, which station staff and many other LUL and outsourced workers work as part of our normal rosters.

For drivers, it’s voluntary, and they get a substantial bonus for signing up!

This has never seemed fair to us. Good on the drivers for negotiating a good deal, but why...

On the offensive against outsourcing in 2023

2023 will be a major year for cleaners and other outsourced workers across LUL/TfL.

We need to keep the pressure on Mayor Khan to ensure he comes good on his commitment to provide travel passes from April, and to ensure the passes are exactly the same pass that directly-employed staff get, rather...

US rail workers fight back

At our December meeting, Tubeworker hosted Marilee Taylor from Railroad Workers United (RWU), a rank-and-file caucus organising across multiple rail industry unions in the USA.

Marilee described US rail workers’ current struggle against the imposition of worse terms and conditions, and their fight...

Gett-ing out of here?

Barely a week goes by without hearing some horror story about the staff taxi service the company puts on to get staff in for dead earlies and home from dead lates. Taxi routes get arbitrarily merged, meaning we get taken round the houses and get home much later than the scheduled time. Sometimes...

Don't help mask the reality of station job cuts

Rosters with reduced staffing levels have already been imposed on Victoria Centre, Heathrow, and King's Cross cover groups, with the next tranche of impositions due to take place on 29 January.

We know the new rosters mean fewer weekends off and more extreme shifts. Their full "operational" impact...

"Nothing will change"?

LUL staff had an email from Chief Operating Officer Glyn Barton today, pleading with us not to go on strike. “Nothing will change”, Barton tells us.

Well, he might be right. As Bob Crow used to put it, “if you fight, you might not win.” But as the second half of the saying goes, if we don’t fight...

Mandate renewed in LUL fight: now call escalated action!

RMT members on LUL have voted overwhelmingly to renew our industrial action mandate, with 94 percent of members voting to continue strikes and action-short-of-strikes, on a 52 percent turnout. The result is testament to the hard work of reps and activists across the combine who ensured the threshold...

Cleaners: use new agreement to demand more

After literally years of negotiation, ABM has finally signed off on a collective bargaining agreement with RMT.
That means there will now be a formal structure for cleaners’ representation, with formally recognised reps’ positions, and an opportunity for RMT to submit claims for changes to pay...

A load of Bollo...

Management's continued reluctance to do almost anything about the state of Bollo House train depot on the Piccadilly line was under renewed pressure when we got no hot water one nippy Tuesday morning.

Along with machines with no food, doors that won't stay quiet and mice falling through the...

Put drivers in the picture

Recently it seems service control on the Picc has lost its way on incident management. No updates, missing calls, not putting trains away, acting as if they won't make decisions — all while drivers get made late and then have to demand a reluctant desk to actually do something.

Perhaps incidents...

Drivers: safety first!

Reports reach Tubeworker of service control managers trying to push drivers into over-carrying passengers who won't or can't be removed from trains into sidings.

It seems drivers' safety comes in second to getting the trains off the running line.

Drivers should remember to get to a place of...

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