Pay: 50 Reasons Why Tube Workers Should Vote Yes To Strike

Posted in Janine's blog on ,

The text of a leaflet I have put out as RMT rep on Bank group of stations ...

  1. LUL owes you money. You should have had your 4% pay rise last April 1st - nearly ten months ago.
  2. LUL let you go through Xmas without your rise, a nasty action worthy of Scrooge, which left staff struggling with the cost of the festive season.
  3. You work hard, with anti-social hours, vulnerable to accident and assault.
  4. You work and live in a city with a high cost of living and soaring housing costs.
  5. LUL is carrying a record number of passengers, recently hitting 4m in one day. This is down to your hard work; you should share in the fruits of that work.
  6. You have not had a pay rise since 1st April 2005.
  7. Prices have been rising, so your pay has, in real terms, been falling.
  8. On 7th July 2005, you and your workmates were hailed as heroes because of your work in the aftermath of the bombings. LUL may have praised you - but it has given you no pay rise in the year-and-a-half since.
  9. LUL has been earning interest on the pay rise it has withheld from you.
  10. LUL's Derisory Offer
  11. We could get our pay rise by accepting LUL's offer. But it is rubbish.
  12. It is a 3-year offer, with rises only a fraction above inflation in years 2 and 3. If you are on £20k, the 0.5% pay rise in year 2 is £100 ie. less than £2 per week before tax. It’s peanuts.
  13. The measure of inflation used, RPI, is a general, average figure, so does not reflect local factors such as big Council Tax or utility bill rises. So you could end up with a pay cut rather than a pay rise. You did not join a union for it to negotiate a cut in your pay!
  14. LUL will not rule out introducing draconian new attendance and discipline policies within those three years.
  15. A multi-year deal stops your union fighting to improve your pay and conditions year on year. LUL wants to keep its guns loaded while insisting that the union puts ours away!
  16. LUL also wants to impose a 'customer satisfaction bonus'. You may get a bit of extra money, but only if enough passengers feel 'satisfied', which is usually down to factors beyond your control eg. Ticket Office closures, Infraco cock-ups.
  17. The idea of a bonus may seem attractive, but we would rather have an increase in our pay - consolidated, reliable, pensionable.
  18. LUL insists that the union drop our call for door-ro-door staff taxis when later running comes in. They suggest you should get a night bus or ride your bike. LUL holds your personal safety in contempt.
  19. LUL's top managers all got their pay rise.
  20. Ken Livingstone's salary is £136,677; Tim O'Toole's is £250,000 plus bonus; Bob Kiley is paid £3,200 PER DAY as a consultant ... and yet your employer begrudges you a 4% rise.
  21. Talking hasn't worked
  22. Months of talks have not resolved this. Arbitration has also failed to persuade LUL to pay up. If we do not take action, talks will go nowhere.
  23. There is no legal case your union can take to force LUL to pay your rise. Sadly, it is not illegal for bosses to refuse their workers a pay rise!
  24. There is no good reason why LUL can not pay up for this year now, and keep on talking about future years and other issues.
  25. RMT is often (unfairly) accused of rushing into strikes. This time, no-one can accuse us of that!
  26. It is you and your workmates' hard work that runs the Underground. The most powerful weapon we have is the power to refuse that work - to withdraw our labour by striking.
  27. The reason why pay rates on LUL are not as low as they are on some companies is because we have a strong trade union that is prepared to strike when necessary.
  28. The more Yes votes, the more likely LUL is to pay up and improve their offer, so every Yes vote counts. Every No vote or abstention is an invitation to LUL to dig in, and to prepare further attacks.
  29. With a huge Yes vote, the company may back down and improve its offer. If it does not, RMT will have an overwhelming mandate for action.
  30. A massive Yes vote will show politicians, the press and public how aggrieved LUL staff are.
  31. You may be worried about losing money by striking, but if we don't fight this battle, you will lose a lot more in the long run.
  32. Striking hits the company where it hurts - in the bank balance - and puts massive pressure on them to resolve our grievances.
  33. Effective, All-Grades Action
  34. RMT is balloting members in all grades on LUL.
  35. Despite mischievous rumours to the contrary, this dispute is not just about drivers - it's an all-grades dispute about an all-grades pay claim.
  36. Arrangements for drivers’ later running is a completely separate issue, which should be discussed separately.
  37. LUL insists on linking the two so that it can withhold your pay rise to get its way on later running. This is straightforward blackmail.
  38. Even if the issue of later running were resolved, we would still not accept LUL's miserly pay offer, and would still have to strike to get a better deal.
  39. RMT would like other unions to join us in this battle, but is not prepared to give up just because other, smaller, limited-grade unions have done.
  40. TSSA represents a small minority of staff in clerical and station grades only. BTOG has a tiny handful of members, and most staff have not even heard of it! It is sad that they have accepted LUL's woeful offer, but it is no reason for RMT to surrender too.
  41. Members of other unions are welcome to join our fight for the pay rise you deserve.
  42. LUL management says that RMT should let members vote on its pay offer. That's exactly what we are doing with this ballot!
  43. You have no reason to worry about getting into trouble for striking.
  44. You have a legal right to strike.
  45. It is illegal for your employer to sack workers for striking within the first eight weeks of a dispute.
  46. It is illegal for your employer to punish individuals (or groups, such as probationers) for striking, rather than the whole workforce.
  47. LUL has never punished anyone for striking.
  48. RMT will never settle a dispute without a guarantee of no disciplinary action against strikers.
  49. Official industrial action is not counted against you on your attendance or probation record, despite LUL sometimes threatening to count it.
  50. Because united, we can win!

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