Tubeworker's blog

Detrainment Dispute: What Next?

Last Friday's strike by Bakerloo line detrainment staff was once again solid. But again, fighting alone - and with managers and RCIs doing their duties - it sadly had little effect.

Detrainment staff remain resolute in their determination to stop management imposing lone working, but are asking...

Off Their Rockers?

Tubeworker has had cause to comment on many previous occasions about management's somewhat eccentric schemes for reducing SPADs. But this one really takes the biscuit ... or some form of confectionary anyway.

Bakerloo management had some sticks of rock produced, with 'Bakerloo' running through...

Watch Out: It's The WAGs!

Not the footballers' Wives And Girlfriends, but Wide Aisle Gates. They are like Manual Gates, but with a motor rather than a member of staff. Which sounds great - no more of that RSI-inducing arm-ache, and a chance to help the customers more and share out the workload.

But management seem to think...

Can't Afford A Coat Hook?

Apparently, some trains are missing cab coat hooks, and they are not being replaced because depot stores can't afford to buy any.

So all this money has been poured into Metronet for what, precisely?! Perhaps someone could ring the departing Andrew Lezala and ask if he can spare a few of his...

Would You Adam And Eve It?

Believe it or not, Metronet's bosses get to slink away from the disaster they created with more than a million quid of public money in their already over-stuffed pockets.

Andrew Lezala and his accolytes have pulled off an incredible smash-and-grab raid.

Tubeworker wonders whether the same...

Pensions election: Vote Paul and Paul

You will soon be receiving your ballot paper for Section 3 of the TfL Pensions Consultative council election.

Tubeworker strongly urges that you vote for Paul Murphy and Paul O'Brien. As both are RMT activists, they will be more accountable and representative than other candidates, and as members...

East Ham: Unwelcome New Regime

East Ham group's new GSM is busy making himself very unpopular with staff. When he's not having managers turn up unannounced on people's doorsteps, he's disciplining staff when they've done nothing wrong.

Staff are getting mightily peed off about this, and are busy planning the fightback ...

Gis A Job

'Ere, want one of those security guard jobs on the transferring Silverlink stations? Click here.

Benefits include £7.50 per hour (don't spend it all at once), and a 48-hour working week (don't bother applying if you have a life, then).

Oh, and the positions are "permanent". Rather different from...

Detrainment Strikes Again

Bakerloo line detrainment staff are to strike again on Friday 26th October - postponed from 22nd October following an administrative cock-up by RMT.

Once again, these workers deserve full support and solidarity for their efforts to defeat management's plan to impose lone working. As they have shown...

Licences Expired (Again)

It seems that many of the Control Room staff at Neasden have been working despite their safety-critical licensing having expired.

Management's explanation is that there has been a failure of the 'systemised management system'. Brilliant: a systemised system. What next? Safe safety? A licence to...

Familiar At Last

Tubeworker has been saying for a long long time that Station Supervisors ought to be track familiarised. Management's persistent failure to ensure this has led to many incidents of unnecessarily long service disruption and distress to staff.

Well finally, management have agreed to union...

Defective Infraco

Tip to TubeLines. When replacing a defective position detector on a set of points, make sure that you do not replace it with one that is also defective.

Otherwise, you might get a situation like you did the other day - the north end of the Jubilee line suspended not just once but twice, when...

Livingstone Should Deliver For Cleaners

Ken Livingstone has a habit of trumpeting his commitment to a decent living wage for Tube cleaners. Problem is, they ... er ... don't get a decent living wage. Ken's excuse? He doesn't have the power to impose decent wages on the cowboys who hold the contracts.

So Tubeworker was intrigued to read...

Unions Gag Themselves

At last month's Labour Party conference, Gordon Brown took away trade unions' (and local Labour Parties') right to submit resolutions to future conferences. Or rather, the unions gave away their rights - voting for Brown's proposal to gag themselves!

Union resolutions in recent years have been...

West Brompton: More Staff Please

As part of the impending Silverlink transfer, LUL stations Highbury & Islington, Blackhorse Road and West Brompton are to take on responsibility for the Silverlink platforms. Obviously, then, additional responsibilities would entail extra work, extra insepctions, extra fault reporting - and, you'd...

Road Crash? Have A Warning!

Note to Buckhurst Hill group management. If one of your staff has a motorbike crash on the way to work, in uniform, and has to be taken to hospital in an ambulance for emergency treatment, then you should offer them sympathy and support - not an attendance warning. Issuing a warning is against...

Boxing Clever?

The Victoria and Metropolitan lines will be closed on Boxing Day for engineering work. Management seem to think this means they can book all the drivers off on annual leave for the day. Problem is: that means you lose an annual day from some other time in the year.

We have little enough control...

Blurred Vision

Note to occupational health. When you do the sight test for someone who has achieved promotion to driver, let them wear their glasses. After all, they are hardly going to get in the cab and take their specs off, are they?!

Rumour has it that a CSA, having passed all the tests for driver, may...

Thameslink Transfer

As well as the impending Silverlink transfer, there's another transfer in the offing - King's Cross Thameslink station is coming over to LUL on 9th December.

But can we trust management to ensure adequate staffing levels? Tubeworker fears not, and management's apparent unwillingness to even discuss...

Shocking Attitude To Safety

Literally shocking, as a Bakerloo driver had to go to hospital after getting an electric shock from the Train Ready to Start Plunger in Harrow & Wealdstone Sidings.

Hospital, pah! No need to, erm, take the plunger out of commission, eh? Just keep on using it until we are sure what's wrong. Th...

Food In The Cab

We think management may be planning to install minibars in drivers' cabs. Stands to reason, since their 'top form' booklet recommends having the following with you in the cab - water, orange juice, coffee or tea, bananas, low-fat low-sugar cereal bars, cheese/tuna/turkey/salmon/peanut butter...

Want To Take Over Metronet? Have A Billion Quid.

The PPP Arbiter (excuse us, but who elected you?!) has ruled that TfL can be held liable for half of Metronet's overspend, and therefore any new bidder for the Infraco contracts can expect a £1bn handout from TfL. This simultaneously makes it harder for TfL to make its bid, and far easier and more...

SPADs? Concentrate!

As we know, management are constantly figuring out way of reducing SPADs. They have expert analysts on the case, and no stone is left unturned in their efforts to deploy the latest scientific strategies. So a prize for innovation, please, to Bakerloo line management, for coming up with this...

That's Magic

Traffic Circular 38 contained a rather odd recruitment advert. Service Controllers wanted, should have a 'bit of magic' and the ability to 'make problems disappear'!

Could this be an admission by management that mere Muggles can not operate their system? Could that be because of impractical...

No Deadman, No Driver

The Circle and Hammersmith & City lines and the District line's Wimbledon branch have come to a halt this evening as drivers refuse to go along with management's wish to operate trains that may be fatally unsafe.

'C' Stock trains seem to have a problem with the 'deadman's handle', the kit that...

Congestion Crisis - But What Do Management Care?

King's Cross station closed due to overcrowding in the middle of the evening rush hour on the night that Arsenal played Newcastle. Euston became packed with their traffic so had to close as well. Fuming passengers took their aggression out on staff, refusing to evacuate, saying we 'don't deserve our...

Dispute Suspended

Following management's decision to put back the implementation date for the ticket office closures, RMT's Executive has responded by ... suspending its dispute!

This is a mistake. Although the implementation date has been put back - probably as a favour to Ken Livingstone and his re-election...

Cleaners Win Rosters Fight

Cleaners at Morden depot have prevented their management imposing anti-social new rosters.

The cleaners' union reps did not agree to the new roster, but ISS went ahead and imposed it anyway. The cleaners refused to work it, and management threatened to send them home. But the cleaners stood their...

Standing Up To Unsafe Orders

In Queen's Park depot, chemicals are used to clean graffiti off trains in safe area 'A', but not in area 'B', where there is live electric current. It's a simple rule to protect cleaners' health and safety! But managemenst would rather order them to risk their safety by cleaning trains in B.

C...

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