Member Article

London Underground may face industrial action as it plans to cut 900 jobs

Tube London RMT has announced that it may take fresh industrial action as it instructs underground staff to stop working overtime.

The action comes after Transport for London announced plans to close ticket offices across the London Underground network and cut around 900 jobs.

The RMT claims the decision was “forced” on the union as a result of the actions of the London Underground management team.

The overtime ban, which went into affect yesterday, was scheduled to take place earlier this month but the action was suspended by the RMT.

RMT acting general secretary Mick Cash said: “This next phase of action has been called for the clear and simple reason that London Underground has failed to engage in serious discussions over cash-led cuts to jobs, services and safety.

“In fact, as a Freedom of Information request by members of the GLA has revealed, the cuts are being bulldozed through without any mandate and in total ignorance of the public consultation being carried out by London Travel Watch.

“RMT is also aware that the staffing cuts figures supplied under the FOI massage and understate the true scale of job cuts. That is simply outrageous.

“It remains the case that many underground locations will be left without sufficient staff to safely and effectively run stations.

“In terms of ticket offices, the union has serious concerns over the company’s reliance on unproven, unreliable technology to replace them.

“RMT has repeatedly demanded meaningful talks with London Underground but the past five months has proved that that demand is falling on deaf ears.

“The union even suspended action to allow those talks to happen but the management have made no movement and are crashing ahead with their cuts regardless and as a result we are now into a new phase of industrial action and our members remain united and determined as we move the union campaign forwards.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .