Hands Off London Transport – Support Underground Workers

Oliver New, a leading member of the RMT rail union and a member of  West London Left Unity, outlines the work the new Hands off London Transport campaign and the union’s plans to oppose job cuts.

RMT and TSSA tube workers are squaring up to London Mayor Boris Johnson over his plan to cut 950 jobs.  Johnson is happy to accept Government cuts to London Underground – in contrast to his objections to Government plans to limit cash bonuses for bankers. No surprise there – Boris is the mayor for bankers and the City.

RMT has called two 48 hour strikes. The latest variation in times means the first strike will be for no shifts to book on for 48 hours from 21.00 hours on Tuesday 4^th February or from 21.00 on Tuesday 11^th February.  This means the impact will be mainly on the 5^th, 6^th, 12^th and 13^th February. TSSA is balloting and likely to join in – the ballot result is due on 27^th January.  RMT action will involve all Underground members including those not directly affected – engineers, signallers and train drivers.  Aslef will not take part, although some members may respect picket lines, likewise Unite – though they have very few members on the underground.

950 jobs would go under Transport for London plans to restructure stations to reduce front line staff, increase the number of managers and close all ticket offices.  Working arrangements would be ripped up, management numbers would actually increase despite staff cuts and staff would be forced to work ‘flexibly’ – meaning they would only know a couple of days in advance where they would be working – a disaster if you are a carer on shifts.
The job cut plans mean all station staff have to re-apply for jobs, often at lower wages. There are no compulsory redundancies – something RMT has won in previous battles. It’s not always easy to stop people taking voluntary redundancies, but who would want to look for a job in the present climate?
What is also at stake is the future of the Underground as a properly staffed public transport system.  This would particularly impact on passengers with disabilities, people with language issues and would reduce operational safety and increase the threat of anti-social behaviour.  There will of course be more accidents as a result, but to Management, even deaths are subject to cost analysis!

Management constantly refer to the widespread use of the Oyster card as justification for closing ticket offices, but nevertheless 100,000 people a day use ticket offices, including most Oyster card users when they have a problem.

Rather than reducing fares, these planned cuts will go hand in hand with big fare rises as the Government cuts funding.

I’ve worked on the Underground for many years, but have never before seen such a slick propaganda offensive by management towards their own staff, with a constant flow of e-mails, websites updates and staff spoken to individually.  Normally, of course, they don’t give a monkey’s about what we think!  If only they were as interested in running a public transport service as working out how to destroy it!  Management have also set up a scabbing operation, pressurising office staff who volunteered to help during the Olympics to strike break.

This looks like being a prolonged battle, which will be fought politically as well as industrially.   RMT activists have some experience of this, notably though the fight against PPP privatisation on the tube. We eventually won that battle – which means the Underground today still belongs to Londoners and we have to get Londoners to support us in fighting for it.

Left Unity members have been supporting HOLT – the Hands Off London Transport Campaign, set up by activists from RMT, Disabled People Against the Cuts, Occupy, Student Unions, the Peoples Assembly National Shop Stewards Network and others.  It has already held a well attended public meeting, organised a protest and produced leaflets. HOLT is asking local organisations to arrange leafleting and local activity outside London tube stations.

Oliver New