Tubeworker's blog

LU have published the new rosters, minus the jobs we have been fighting to save. Some people feel this means LU have finally got their way. But the fight is not over. The new rosters do not come into effect until February 6th; LU are participating in a review of the cuts; a lot of RMT branches have...

The recently-published Speak Up 2010 results are a round condemnation of LU's managerial regime over the past year. With a 62% return rate, we get a general picutre of just how undervalued, demotivated and insecure we feel in our jobs. In 99% of categories, our responses reflect worse on LU than...

A recent decision tells us a lot about London Underground Ltd's contemptuous attitude to passenger safety - and about the weakness of the official bodies that are supposed to pull the company up on safety issues.

In various incidents between May and October 2009, 13 members of the public were...

So ... where are we with this fight against job cuts then?!

150 managers and admin already gone ... another 650 stations jobs due to go on 6 February ... 600 to go in the 'support services review' ... Project Horizon to usher in more, no doubt ... and individuals' jobs going at a rate of knots to...

TfL have accepted Wonga.com as sponsors of free travel on New Year's Eve.

Wonga is a legal loan shark company with a typical APR of 2689%. If you were to borrow a fiver from them for one day - enough to cover a single journey on the tube, you'd owe them £10.60 straight away.

For many Londoners...

Over on Facebook, Tubeworker is hosting a discussion about ASLEF's planned Boxing Day strike. Many Tube workers, from both RMT and ASLEF, have already commented.

If you have a Facebook account, click here to read the discussion - and join in!

Yesterday, the Bakerloo line was shut down and the Northern line disrupted as drivers took action to defend victimised workmates Eamonn Lynch and Arwyn Thomas.

Their sackings are part of a vindictive backlash against union organisation following recent effective strikes. By attacking union reps and...

London Underground has awarded a £110m track renewals contract to ... Balfour Beatty!

Unless there is another Balfour Beatty we don't know about, this is the same one which was a major part of the Metronet consortium, which spent the disastrous PPP years turning in a crap performance while fleecing...

When disputes get to the point when we think, ‘where next?’, this can be a time when union leaderships betray the workers involved, or at least ignore us.

We have got to a ‘where next?’ point in this dispute at precisely the time when we are electing our next representative on the RMT's leadership...

The BBC has revealed that LU once again allowed passengers to get off a train at a closed Canada Water station during the last strike, just like it had during a previous strike. Is there no end to the risks the company will take with passenger safety in its desire to 'run a service' for PR reasons...

It looks like another ...erm ... hiccup for TBTC, as the Jubilee has ground to a halt again. It's another weekend when the new signalling system is supposed to be showing us what it can do,and once again it is showing us that what it can do is... fail!

Management still seem to think they can go...

A recent incident shows how LU's de-staffing of stations is putting vulnerable passengers in danger.

An elderly wheelchair user and her partner got off a train late at night at Epping. But with no staff on the station, they were unable to leave and were stuck on the platform. In the freezing cold...

In a leaked memo, TfL has admitted that a series of 'flaws' led to the potentially-fatal runaway train incident in August. No shit Sherlock.

Here's how it happened, apparently. In the small hours of the morning of Friday 13 August, a rail grinding unit broke down at Archway station. An empty...

The 7/7 inquest continues, and has today been hearing from London Underground workers who dealt with the terrible events of that day.

One worker today gave evidence of how he helped those injured, only for a manager to swear at him.

The inquest has consistently highlighted the heroism of the staff...

Another excellent day's strike again saw solid support and massive disuption - and confounded any pessimists who thought that the steam was going out of our fight to save jobs.

Some areas reported even more support than previously, including more ASLEF drivers joining the action. LU was hampered by...

Well well well. LU management are well and truly rattled by our strike going ahead on Sunday/Monday aren't they?

Their latest attempt to intimidate staff is an email circular telling us that if we strike, we are in breach of our contracts (funny that, because our strike ballot paper already told us...

What happened in central London on Saturday 13th November? The Victoria and Jubilee Lines were closed, the Lord Mayor's Show, a rugby game at Twickenham, Xmas shopping.....nothing the Tube should not be able to cope with.

But on Saturday afternoon Embankment, Tottenham Court Road, Picadilly Circus...

TfL's Board meeting at the start of November discussed proposing new legislation to Parliament to give it some new rights. If successful, TfL could get the legal right to flog off land without getting government permission.

The suggested Transport for London Bill 2010 proposes to amend the London...

The next step in our fight against the jobs carnage is our fourth 24-hour strike on 28/29 November. It is essential that we make it as solid and effective as possible.

We have management on the back foot following three strikes, each of which was more solid than the previous. But we haven't tipped...

The new Victoria line stock has sensitive doors, designed to enhance safety by preventing the train from moving if anything is trapped in the doors.

It turns out, though, that they are so sensitive that pressure on the doors causes the train to remain stationary for several minutes - and in the...

Tory Gareth Bacon is after our staff passes!

He reckons that during these tight financial times, 'the taxpayer' (as if Tube workers were not taxpayers!) should not pay for our travel around London.

Let's leave aside for one moment how much 'the taxpayer' is handing over to pay for Mr Bacon's...

Good news from the Employment Tribunal, as RMT lands a punch back on London Underground management, winning the interim relief application for Eamonn Lynch.

Bakerloo driver and RMT health & safety rep Eamonn was sacked for a driving error, even though drivers making similar errors had got...

It's looking like our third 24-hour strike is even more solid than the previous two. Even management are admitting serious disruption, which given the way they cook the figures, must mean there is really really serious disruption! And who knows what rules the company has chucked out of the window to...

LU management trundles on with it various ways of tempting business away from ticket office windows. To spot the latest, look at TRU no.45 p.15.
NR Ticket Range Improved on POMs
From November 12, you can now buy anything from discounted railcard to advanced and super saver tickets from POMs.

But...

Download it here.

Announcing further job cuts, LU management are stepping up their offensive against Tube workers and our unions. We need to step up our campaign accordingly.

There have been many positive aspects to the dispute so far. We have fought despite there being no compulsory redundancies threatened: we are...

Over the last few weeks, millions of French workers have been on strike over and over again to stop the government’s plans to raise the retirement age. Sarkozy, who describes himself as “the French Thatcher”, has tried to impose a new pensions regime on French workers which would mean that most...

London Underground assured us it was ‘safe’ to work on the day of the firefighters’ strike. The same people claimed it was ‘safe’ during our recent LU strikes - while opening section 12 stations under minimum numbers, or with managers with two hours’ training, trapping passengers in closed stations...

It seems that LU management have decided to take hostages in their war against their own workforce.

Tubeworker has already reported on the outrageous case of Eamonn Lynch, dismissed for following orders. Now we have Arwyn Thomas, Northern Line driver and RMT activist for 20+ years, sent to CDI for...

The day the government announced its vast spending cuts, Boris Johnson snuck in an extra attack.

Tube fares will rise on average 6.8% in January 2011, 2% above July's Retail Price Index.

This comes at a time when Boris is eliminating the concept of customer service from London Underground.

It...