LUL plans hit red aspect...

SIGNALS: VICTORY!
Valentine’s Day Massacre That's why the agreement reached at ACAS is important.
It has been agreed that the JWP incorporates discussions
THE STRIKE action planned for Sunday 14 February,
and every Sunday after, has been suspended as LUL have been involving the whole of CMO. If management fuck about
forced to make an incredible about-turn. The strike action on again then this time we'll pull out the entire engineering
Friday 5 February and the work-to-rule hurt the company badly. sector!
LUL's media propaganda ('no impact on passenger service') hid Made to eat their words!
the fact that behind the scenes their BTR's, engineering Senior LUL Directors stated on the BBC before the
maintenance and upgrade works were being hit hard to the tune strike: “We are planning to introduce a roster covering 24
of millions. The prospect of a ‘Valentine’s Day Massacre’ hours a day, seven days a week, to ensure planned
followed by strikes every Sunday simply terrified them. engineering staff are always available”. Now, following
The imposition of rosters have been lifted and “both the solid strike action, they’re saying: “We have always
company and the trade unions recognise that the majority of maintained that agreement can only be reached through
employees in CMO currently work Monday to Friday and are discussion and we look forward to further constructive
not rostered to work weekends”. A Joint Working Party (JWP) talks”.
has been agreed to report back to a Company Council on April Better still is Gerry Duffy, Director of Employee
12. The JWP will further discuss to resolve matters surrounding Relations. Gerry in a power point presentation to various
rosters, outsourcing and determining agreed processes and bosses and bankers in 2007 (see Across the Tracks exclusive)
procedures at all levels within the Machinery rather than stated that his strategy was to: “buy LU time” strengthening
management's poor and crass attempts to impose whatever negotiating skills where they make “no concessions” and
changes they want. “change behaviours”. At negotiations Gerry stated: “I don't
Given the bullish approach from management prior to like dealing with the trade unions but I've learnt that I'll have
the strike, this can only be seen as a fantastic victory by a group to now” - changing behaviours indeed! What a fantastic
of workers who have stood firm in the face of attacks. welcome back for Mike Brown who rejoins LUL in March.
Furthermore, workers under the Signals Framework Agreement Divisions deepen but prepare for more attacks
weren't fooled by the lie that the roster imposition only related The truth is that divisions are deepening between
to 30 workers. They knew that if management got this principle managers within LUL and between LUL and Tubelines and
through then it would be 'open season' with impositions across other contractors. Duffy's “give 'em nothing” approach is
the board. The solidarity across the workforce, signals, creating tensions with a layer of managers. While Duffy
electrical and power workers must be applauded. It was a clear wants to steel his managers to take us on, others in his remit
demonstration of a key trade union principle: “An injury to one can't understand why he seems to elevate everything to a
is an injury to all”. point of principle. Management are under pressure to meet
Work to Rule contractual dates and deadlines and Tubelines is a disaster
And the response to the call for a work to rule further just waiting to happen.
invigorated that solidarity. The work to rule was around the Both economically and politically (both Brown and
role of site person in charge with strict adherence to rules and Boris from different angles but for the same reasons) they
procedures i.e. show us your method statements and risk need to take us on immediately in response to the economic
assessments, read them, challenge them, then don't do the crisis as well as having the 2012 Olympics in sight. Their
work. plan was to have key principles in place prior to the new
On the District Line in particular workers essentially financial year (April) and before the General Election.
did no work from the Monday after the strike and the Met They've been knocked back. But they will be back and we
stopped most work for Tues/ Weds. This ended with Frank need to be prepared to take further action
‘Pillock’ (Fullick), threatening to send ALL night staff home Management have wanted to dent our engineering
without pay if they didn't work. They didn't work! The threats organisation ever since the Metronet strike in 2007. They
will cause long term damage on the line as the staff hate his thought they had a bit of a chance with Signals to the extent
guts and they will go all out to continually do him in. He has to that Gerry even brought in scabs to break the strike.
go. Also, if he did do that, the dispute would have escalated to However, very quickly, they've got the shock of their lives.
all out war! LUL picked the wrong fight - it was a bad chess move.
Not only because of the solid organisational response from On Signals (Operational) and Command and Control the
signals but also because Management were petrified that the primary aim seems to be increasing the productivity of
signals dispute might spill over into the operational side workers by not filling vacancies.
(COO). Their focus will now almost certainly shift to taking Lessons
on the operational grades starting with Stations. Solid strike action in 2007 not only saw the demise of
The struggle continues... Metronet but also stunned LUL. This time we urgently need
Across the Tracks has learnt that the team around not only to retain, but to extend across all grades, the level of
Penny Hazel who are drawing up the plans for re-structuring organisation, confidence and combativity achieved in our
the job have been sent away by LUL's Director's to fine tune it engineering sector.
and come back in a few weeks. The signals dispute is a great example of the trade
This was partly tactical i.e. “not now, we're dealing union solidarity which must be built on. We need to
with signals” and partly to sort out teething problems and understand that the attacks we face, whilst multiple, all relate
prepare for the arrival of Mike Brown. But it was also to attacks on Jobs. Two immediate things need to be done:
probably because the plans didn't meet the cost-cutting 1) Workers under the Signals Framework Agreement
requirements of the Company. should tour the operational train and signals depots as well as
At the heart of the attacks is the Company's plan to stations explaining how they organised and how they won.
lose jobs through the back door, increase the productivity of Where management refuse access to canteens, meetings
each worker, de-skill and multi-task the workforce and should be held at the gates or nearby venues. This should also
attack safety which is becoming a huge cost burden to them. be done via branches.
This is before any full scale attack on jobs through 2) Everyone should get to the the meeting organised
redundancy and in parallel to attacks on our pensions. by LUL engineering branch (advertised below).
Necessarily, this will lead to attacks on the Machinery of Meanwhile, the operational grades need to up their
negotiation and consultation; framework agreements and the game urgently. Presently, a lot of work needs to be done to
introduction of further draconian measures in the disciplinary strengthen union organisation in the stations and while the
and attendance procedures. This will translate into attacks on trains hold massive industrial strength they need to be
conditions from rosters to annual leave to pay. The attacks are prepared to use it.
root and branch. Clear industrial and political strategies are also
The way this translates on Stations is the restructure necessary to win. Workers under the Signals Framework
of the station groups (fewer, larger groups); loss of positions Agreement and Alstom technicians on the Jubilee Line not
by not filling vacancies and ticket office closures (job losses); only organised on the ground to deliver solid ballot results,
freezing any movement and promotion as a means of further they also delivered action and developed strategies to win - to
contracting the workforce and doing away with safety critical hit the Company where it hurts and put on serious dates for
licencing in favour of generalised competency to de-skill jobs strike action.
and force multi-tasking. This will lead to McJobs on the It's no good pointing a gun unless you've got the
Stations in the future with the use of agency workers at a bullets. We have work to do to defend our jobs and conditions
pittance of the pay and conditions we've secured over the years. and to extend and generalise that fight against management.
Of course, this does not apply solely to stations but We’re all facing massive attacks for a crisis we didn’t
all grades, operational and maintenance, alike. However, create. Yet, we’ve already paid for it when Gordon Brown
management's focus is very likely to shift to stations first. pumped in billions of our money to prop up the banks. We are
On trains, non performing depots away from the end not paying for it again.
of lines, not close to sidings or maintenance depots are under The bottom line is this: when it comes to
threat of being merged. For management meal reliefs and pick management, there's no such thing as “we” there's only “us
ups cause delays in the inner areas. Outer services on branch and them”. It needs to be demonstrated loud and clear: it’s us
lines are also under threat - late at night managers have been not them that keep this great city moving. And it’s us that can
spying on these areas on how many passengers are actually bring it to a standstill and them to their knees. Let’s get to
traveling. It all adds up to cuts on all fronts. work!

‘Organising, Militancy and Revitalisation’:

The case of the RMT
•Thursday 4 March, 1800hrs
•Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church
(235 Shaftsbury Ave - nr TCR)
•Speakers: Prof. Ralph Darlington,
Bob Crow, Alex Gordon
Contributions from the floor
ALL WELCOME
Organised by: LU Engineering branch, RMT

www.across-the-track.posterous.com email: acrossthetracks@ymail.com

Phone/Text: 07958 124 225