Workers' Diaries

The radio goes off, and you glance at it, wondering what they want from you. You are already out of service, running into the depot. This almost certainly means they’re finding more work for you. The luxury of a slow stroll back to your home depot seems to evaporate. “Change of plan. You’ll get a good train and run that out of service back to the Sidings”. The same sidings you have just been asked to collect the bad train from. The joys of being spare… “That’s all received, but you know I need to be back on the westbound for 1832. Will I have enough time?” “You’ll be turned straight round...

In a decently-sized London Underground station, especially one with more than one ticket hall, there are inevitable challenges running the station and keeping enough staff in the right places.

While at the gates in my station, I get an email. The RMT has shared a new report to all members who work for Transprt for London (TfL), a piece of research done by Imperial College London into mortality rates. By analysing data from the TfL Pension Fund, they’ve found that mortality rates are significantly higher for those who work on London buses and in the Underground when compared to TfL office workers. This jumps when looking at specific causes: Underground workers have a 73% higher chance of dying from respiratory diseases, and bus workers 44%. The risk of lung cancer doubled if you...

Nobody is happy about the temperature hitting 34 degrees. Not while they’re at work, anyway. The ticket hall in our station has machine rooms on either side, meaning station staff are sandwiched in the middle of radiating heat, with little circulation to bring cooler air in as we stand there for hours in a row helping thousands of passing customers. A barista at the coffee shop next to the station is from the Middle East, but when I visit for an iced coffee she complains that unlike the buildings and infrastructure back home, Britain is not designed for the heat. If that’s true in the air...

Working on the day of Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rally (16 May) is naturally going to bring some politics to the fore among co-workers. It’s not hard to kick up conversation when every trainload brings a few dozen boisterous customers draped in union jacks and St George flags, many of them unpleasant to deal with from a day of drinking. Some coworkers know that I was at a counter-protest in Trafalgar Square earlier in the day, and are curious to hear how it went. With a few exceptions, it’s a widely held view that the march is racist, and should be opposed. The question of actually...

Working in a Tube station makes it abundantly clear how threadbare emergency services in Britain are after decades of unsustainable cuts. The basic rule: if they aren’t facing imminent death, you won’t be getting an ambulance. Customers with severe fractures, injuries, potential severe and urgent illnesses have all been denied emergency care in my station in recent months, in cases that would have got them urgent attention a decade ago. There’s a clear interconnection between decades of austerity and emergencies on the underground. Staff having to look after vulnerable or mentally unwell...

Most station staff in my Tube station know very little about the upcoming train crew strike. The union’s messaging clearly hasn’t made much headway, and 48 hours before it starts, lots of them are none the wiser about why it’s happening. “Something to do with them having a four-day week? But I don’t see why you’d strike over that”. In conversation, this isn’t hard to iron out. When I explain that the proposal includes things like changing start times and locations at short notice, nobody is hostile, and most agree that the RMT union is right to strike. But their information has largely come...

Shifts on the gateline last a lot longer when every breath fogs up your glasses. But it would be irresponsible to breathe cold germs onto thousands of customers, not to mention my colleagues. The last thing we’d need is something nasty to go round and have the station close from everyone booking off sick later in the week. Coworkers and supervisors are sympathetic, but none of them ask the question that might seem obvious: why not just take the day off? They all know why. I’m on probation, and that means no sick days. Sick days do exist in theory. But if you take one, it’s a surefire way to...

“Some will cross and we shouldn’t be too relaxed about that”. “And it’ll be their reps telling them. Maybe some won’t want to but they will be told they should”. “Their District Organiser will tell people to work on those days”. “Has anyone actually asked any of them what they plan to do?” With less than a week now till our strikes begin over the working week, the question of what Aslef members will do is a big talking point. Will they respect pickets over a deal they want implemented? Is it likely they all think it should be implemented without any negotiation at all? A dispute resolution...

The “voluntary” rollout of iPads to driver instructors has accelerated. Management claims there was no connection between talk of issuing iPads to all drivers and the management/Aslef longer-working-day proposals. We’ve had a flurry of emails from line training coordinators, to instructors themselves, to depots to book them onto iPad training courses, and to anyone who wants an iPad, asking them to step forward. For now, the iPad issue looks to be back to being voluntary. There are a few issues at stake here. Most of us have no objection to new tech, but we question how it is implemented and...