Tubeworker's blog

In case you were wondering how much administrators cost, it is apparently around 750 quid per person per hour (that's their fee, rather than the amount the individuals are actually paid). And there are 45 of them administering Metronet. So, assuming they are on, say, a 35-hour week, that's over a...

Dear Tubeworker

Staff on the gateline in the busy station where I work face abuse from customers regularly. It can make you angry, and can get you down after a while. Although we have to learn to deal with it and carry on doing our job, I feel that we should not just 'accept' or grow to 'expect'...

While staff dealt with the effects of the heavy downpour a couple of weeks back, the GSM showed up at Golders Green station. Great - some people would say that managers never show up when the proverbial hits the fan, but Tubeworker won't have a bar of it.

Oddly, though, this GSM's contribution to...

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.

One driver pointed to where it said, 'not to be used for safety...

Brilliant news, as RMT and TSSA (yes, TSSA) have announced that they will both ballot their members on Metronet to stop forced re-privatisation. RMT's press release is below. Hey, it would be good if Amicus/Unite! joined in too.

The priority now is to get a massive Yes vote and activate the rank...

At Ealing Broadway station, the cleaners have no mess room. They have to hide in the toilets to rest and eat their meals.

And yet their management, rather than sort them out some decent facilities, prefer to clamp down. When the toilets have been busy, cleaners have been seen resting on trains or...

Reserve staff at Victoria are being refused days off, and changes of rest days, when they ask for them. There have been ridiculous stories of being refused days off for weddings in October!

After some staff complained that others were getting preferential treatment with days off, management have...

Management can't seem to make their minds up whether the East London line performs brilliantly or dreadfully. On the one hand, it's the worst performing line on the Underground; on the other, they are claiming that the line - on the verge of closure for the building of the extension - is 'going out...

Jubilee South & East London Line Branch RMT

Special Branch Meeting
Wednesday 1st August 2007
1530 hrs
The Blue Eyed Maid,
Borough High Street
London Bridge Station

Stop the privatisation of the East London Line

Build up the campaign – What direction should we be taking?

An open meeting for all...

Staff applying from promotion have been flummoxed to discover that the application form asks them for names and addresses of former employers - and even for exam results from school!

Excuse us, but since we already work for LUL, management should be able to form their own judgements on us, and...

As Metronet goes into administration, the abject failure of PPP is laid bare. There's only one solution - re-integrate the Tube under public ownership! Don't let Gordon Brown and Ken Livingstone cook up a deal to re-privatise the infrastructure.

RMT has called a protest at Downing Street on Th...

There has been a massive 15-1 Yes vote for strike action to defend ill-heatlh pension entitlement. This gives a mandate for strike action by RMT members not only on London Underground, but in Metronet, TubeLines, EDF, REW and Cubic. The turnout wasn't great, though (over 11,000 were balloted)...

You may have read previously on Tubeworker's blog - or in our sister publication, Off The Rails - about the disgraceful redundancies of GrantRail workers on the TubeLines contract. TubeLines and GrantRail agreed that they wouln't take on other contract workers to do jobs that the redundant workers...

Today's Bakerloo line strike was well-supported, with station staff out solid, and only a couple of RCIs and some ASLEF drivers providing a blot on the landscape.

There was no service at all for the first couple of hours in the morning, then a skeleton service along only part of the line which...

It's "everyone out" on Friday for the Bakerloo line strike, after management refused to budge in talks. They are persisting with putting staff in an intolerably dangerous position by forcing them to work alone while detraining passengers, so we have to persist with our planned strike action.

With a...

Metronet has now gone into administration. Ernst & Young have taken over on behalf of Transport for London. Metronet's workers were paid on time, so did not have to carry out their plan to occupy their depots if their wages had not materialised.

While TfL is now back in charge, it is likely to be...

It seems that LUL has vetoed an advert for GT magazine on the grounds that one of the models is too scantily-clad. The bloke concerned is helping the magazine to celebrate 40 years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality.

Oddly, similarly unclothed men have appeared on advertising...

Management argue that changes in customer ticket-buying behaviour are behind their move to close 40 ticket offices and cut dozens more. But they are well short of evidence.

They have documents and graphs. But while they claim that statistics show reduced usage of ticket offices, they seemed very...

Last Thursday, 12th July up, to 130,000 postal workers went on strike for the second time in two weeks. They have been offered a below-inflation pay increaseof 2.5%, and have been told they must accept a 22-point 'business plan' which includes the loss of 40,000 jobs, cuts in the postal service and...

Metronet is all over the news today. The PPP Arbiter has indicated that he will not agree to the Infraco's demand that London Underground pay for its incompetence, and LUL will 'only' have to pay Metronet an additional £121m rather than the £551m it had asked for. That's not a one-off, that's the...

09:45, Thursday 19th July, London Underground HQ, 55 Broadway, next to St. James' Park station.

Called by RMT

Refurb work at Loughton station involves resurfacing the platforms. A tip to Metronet: make sure the new surface has actually set before you let passengers stand on it. One particular passenger was aggrieved to find her bag covered in black sticky stuff ...

This follows an incident during the hot...

Drivers and detrainment staff will strike on the Bakerloo line for 24 hours starting with shifts booking on after 10pm on Thursday evening, 19th July. In effect, this is an all-day strike on Friday.

Activists are working hard to ensure 100% solid action, and we confidently predict that management...

It seems that Tubeworker can claim a victory! Why? At the recent Safety Forum, management agreed in principle to bring back Accident Books.

Union reps had originally allowed management to withdraw the books, but after Tubeworker drew attention to the potential problems, they took up the issue and...

On the second anniversary of the terrorist bombing of the Tube, here's a reminder of what Tubeworker said at the time.

Imagine being off sick, there's a knock on your door and ... it's a manager! That's what happened to a member of station staff on the Bakerloo centre group.

'Home visits' are supposed to happen only under certain conditions - the option of meeting at work instead, adequate notice, and the right to...

Yesterday's derailment on the Central line was in the same place as another incident just six weeks ago. On May 21, a train struck a P-way storage bin left by the track, and was lucky not to derail. Union health & safety reps complained to management and demanded an investigation. This was not the...

LUL's ticket office closure plan will force many SAMFs to be displaced, including many who were displaced only just over a year ago under the 35-hour week.

Spare a thought for the Mansion House SAMF who was displaced out of his post, then transferred back under a priority move when a workmate...

The prize has been awarded - MTR Laing will run London Overground, the new franchise consisting of the already-private Silverlink North London Line and the to-be-privatised East London Line.

RMT condemned the decision, Bob Crow rightly stating that "However it is dressed up, today's announcement...

Noticed how all the choccy machines on the platforms have been taken out of service? Apparently, not only does LUL want to squeeze more passengers onto the platform, it also wants to move away from retail provision at platform level!

Or maybe it just can't swallow the irony that confectionery shops...