Tubeworker's blog

The Intranet is advertising an exciting opportunity for Jubilee Line station staff. A promotion? Promise of job security?

No. Realising that station staff feel stuck in a rut as cutbacks promise the same or a worse job for years to come, they have offered up a scam where you can apply to become...

There is quite some disruption today, as plenty of workers have realised that running an underround railway without adequate fire cover is not safe - so are refusing to do it.

The Jubilee is currently suspended between Green Park and North Greenwich due to the quaintly-titled "operational problems"...

Tubeworker is now on Facebook. Why not add us as a friend and see what Tubeworker gets involved in during their free time? You can also message us and let us know the issues that are concerning you at work - but remember that it could be seen by the bosses so perhaps a private message or email is...

The patchwork of major incidents on London Underground, and safety cuts announced or envisaged by LUL management would be laughable were it not so serious.

Routinely over night on the Jubilee Line, speed limits of 5mph appear - often not clearly highlighted to train drivers. At the same time LU...

The Greater London Assembly has voted to condemn LU's job cuts, as Labour, LibDems and Greens voted for a resolution opposing the cuts and urging the Mayor to rethink. Apparently the Tories managed to stay in the room this time, thus avoiding a hat-trick of walkouts and allowing themselves to be...

Click here to download the new issue of the printed Tubeworker bulletin.

LU management's latest ploy to undermine our fight against job cuts is to offer voluntary severance (VS) to a limited number of SAMFs, despite its 'consultation' not being over.

The company is doing this in order to create the impression that the job cuts are a done deal and will go ahead...

DLR management are attacking the workforce on several fronts - so the workforce is uniting to fight back.

First off, they weren't even going to bother compensating workers for the extra workload involved in 3-car running, until a strike ballot made them back down. Now, management are breaking the...

LU management plan to scrap the grade of Instructor Operator, and create a new grade of 'leading train operator' whose job will include managerial duties such as competence monitoring and desk duties. But there will be fewer leading train operators than there are I/Ops, so the I/Ops will have to...

As firefighters vote 79% on a 79% turnout to strike, you may like to read about their big pay strike in late 2002, when hundreds of Tube workers refused to work on the grounds of safety.

Click here and here to read reports, and here to view the issue of Tubeworker published at the time.

Tubeworker aims to speak for the rank and file, the majority of workers, who go to work every day, whose trade union activity is based in our workplace, who are at the grassroots of the union.

We are backing Janine Booth for RMT’s executive because her record proves that she is the candidate who...

London Underground has sacked Bakerloo driver Eamonn Lynch - for doing what he was told!

In an outrageous miscarriage of justice, Eamonn was summarily dismissed yesterday. His crime? When given an erroneous instruction by the control centre, he obeyed it.
Now, what do you think would have happened...

As ammunition against our union movement, the recent Channel 4 ‘Dispatches’ program quoted the salaries of various General Secretaries, including RMT Bob Crow’s. His salary is £80,000, but the media is presenting it as £120,000 by including expenses and employer's pension contribution.

We in...

Sources close to senior management have revealed they are not just surprised but flabbergasted by the strength of our strike. The second was not only as good, but stronger than the first, which is incredible.

Members are feeling buoyed up by the strength of the action so far. Stations have proved...

Cleaning companies are still using immigration law to intimidate and attack their low paid workers.

In the most recent instance, Initial/ Rentokil called immigration police to their head office, to arrest one worker who had a query about his wages. He spent the night in custody. Fortunately for...

Some people might have thought from the most recent strike that the fight was weakening on the Victoria Line. Unlike the previous strike, LU managed to run a service along the full length of the line.

In fact, the fight is not weakening amongst the drivers. The first strike, they couldn't run...

LU is making a dog's dinner of its new lift training procedures, and has now been caught out trying to bully staff.

New training regulations are supposed to mean that staff on lift stations are trained on site, rather than on some random lift on another station. But when management tried to do the...

London Underground has announced another 800 job cuts, planning to get rid of 400 "support staff" (whatever that may mean) and not filling another 400 posts currently either vacant or covered by temps.

For any remaining doubters, it must now be crystal clear that (a) the 800 station staff job cuts...

LU's claims that machines can replace people suffered a blow when the Oyster vending machine at Upney was stolen.

Late on Tuesday, thieves lifted the machine and had away with it. So if there is no open ticket office, where are people supposed to buy their Oyster?!

It's another strong and solid Tube strike this morning, as management's hopes that our resolve would fail proved to be very much mistaken. Participation in the strike has held up just as strongly as last month, and was stronger in several areas.

More stations were closed early this morning than at...

The man the right-wing press are calling 'Red' Ed Miliband has won the Labour leadership election, beating his more-Blairite brother David to the top job. The media are painting this as the 'death of New Labour' and the unions 'taking back' the Labour Party. Neither of these things are true (and...

Last weekend's TBTC trial on the Jubilee Line was beset by problems. The line was suspended Waterloo to West Hampstead for most of evening, then two trains were stuck at 5mph due to more faults ...

There were problems all day, from first train til last. Axle counter faults ... again. West Hampstead...

Did anyone watch the Dispatches doc 'What's the point of the unions?'. They seemed to be saying RMT strike ballots are held at meetings where members are intimidated into voting yes for strike action - postal ballots were 'overlooked'. Then went on to say that RMT are striking too early -...

Twice in the last week, managers have forced Green Park to stay open, despite it being below minimum numbers. Today, they finally had to admit defeat and close it.

Last Saturday night, Canary Wharf, Canada Water and North Greenwich stations all closed while there were still trains running. And on...

London Underground continues to claim that its savage cuts in ticket office opening hours are 'driven by changes in customer behaviour'. Yet it also continues to drive those changes in customer behaviour itself, in an attempt to justify savage cuts in ticket office opening hours!

The company's...

It looks like LU management has caved over plans to dilute drivers' safety procedures in order to help cut stations jobs.

The company had intended to introduce a range of wild - and wildly unsafe - changes, including reuiring drivers to notch back into platforms, detrain along the track alone, and...

TUC Congress unanimously passed an energency resolution from TSSA and RMT 'saluting' the 'brave' strike action we took on London Underground.

It's good to know that the rest of the trade union movement is behind us. Interestingly, the unanimous vote included ASLEF. Some ASLEF members went one...

A leak has shown that hundreds of job cuts are coming on Tube Lines. So ... the bosses mess up, the workers pay the price. Typical.

After proving our strength earlier this year, Tube Lines workers now need to prepare for a fight on a much larger scale. We can fight alongside our workmates in London...

While some people say 'I can't afford to strike' as an excuse for scabbing, others genuinely struggle with the loss of pay. Unions should organise hardship funds so that members can claim some financial help.
But while the unions officially have these funds (in RMT's case, we pay into it from our...

London Underground has announced a new initiative, the ominously-titled 'Project Horizon'. It presents it as a sensibel strategic review to ensure that LU is using its resources to maximum effect.

But we know that is code for: MORE JOB CUTS.

A genuinely sensible review would increase frontline...