And so we stumble towards the strike like a drunken
wildebeest, LUL aren’t going to compromise on their plans, the unions aren’t
going to swallow the loss of 953 jobs along with loads of staff being downgraded
and facing wage cuts in three years. LUL
and Boris say that the unions should call off the strikes and enter into
discussions but obviously it would have helped had management talked
to the unions before announcing their big plans rather than presenting them
without any prior consultation.
The ticket offices will go, that is inevitable and I can’t
really argue for their survival, they are nice to have but no longer
essential. Perhaps there should be more “travel
centres” than the six proposed, certainly you could argue that Waterloo and
London Bridge deserve something, possibly even some of the big West End stations
like Oxford Circus but Oyster was brought in for precisely this reason, to get
passengers doing ticketing for themselves and make ticket offices redundant.
You could argue that stations without supervisors could
be a problem but with the savings in wages LUL will be making I can’t see them
backing down on that one, not until there’s a major incident at somewhere like
THB and some poor CSA with six months on the job is totally unable to
cope with the situation while the Super is stuck at BUH or wherever.
I was talking to a TOp who was part of the Pool that
joined the Central Line for the Olympics then was shunted off to the Northern as
soon as it was all over and prior to her training in 2012 she spent five years
on stations. She’d wanted to get
promotion on the stations but in those five years there wasn’t a single advert
for Station Supervisor, Multi-Functional or Control Room Assistant, in the end
she applied for TOp simply because she’d given up hope of every moving off the
gatelines.
Now during those five years there must have been plenty
of SSs, SAMFs and SACRs leave so I’m guessing that those vacancies weren’t
being filled and the jobs covered by overtime, higher grade working or Duty
Managers stepping in as Supers. It would
be interesting to know how many of those 953 jobs that are being shed are
already empty.
Another aspect that sprang to mind was promotion
prospects, with the DSM grade disappearing the only way up for CSMs is Area
Manager and with 770 less CSMs than SSs there’s far less chance of moving up
for CSSs and CSAs. It also seems that
CSA1s will be required to take on more responsibilities than previously but
they will be getting the same money which certainly doesn’t seem fair.
There are issues to discuss but as the past has demonstrated
it will take a strike to get LUL to even consider deviating away from their
plan, they want the staff to be “flexible” but lack any flexibility themselves.
Good luck, folks.
The weirdest thing is that we have newly trained Supervisors coming out of training now who after several years of waiting followed by passing all the assessments and exams, Have just been told we that the job no longer exists and they are back to square one as a CSA. No wonder they are ticked off.
ReplyDeleteAs you say I don't imagine management will back down but in a couple of years when they have a reduced workforce, all of whom won't trust management at all and with no real chance of career advancement I don't think it will be a happy workplace
You know... I can't figure out why they included a ticket office in the TCR rebuild if this move was on the cards all along.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably a Ticket Office on the plans only, by the time it opens it will be a Amazon locker or a Tesco Drop point or some such
DeleteThe strike has begun, and I do have some sympathy with the station staff, even though I will need to find another route to work tomorrow (not using TfL).
ReplyDeleteHowever, I see that a lot of lines, including the good old central are now running with delays due to staff shortage.
I hate to fan the flames, but if this is down to train operators not reporting for work, what action will be taken against them, as they're supposedly not on strike!!!
According to our good friend Mr. Shrugged, RMT T/Ops have been asked not to book on during the strike - so it remains to be seen how many RMT T/Ops will turn up for work on the strike dates. Possibly, therefore, the "staff shortage" that is apparently the cause of minor delays on the Central line includes RMT T/Ops. Additionally, RMT (I don't know about TSSA) have requested their control room staff to stop working, too, which - as I'm sure you can imagine - would lead to delays with the service.
ReplyDeleteYes it will decimate the service.
DeleteNow if I were LUL (which I'm not), I'd be looking at this to see if it was legal in all honesty.
I'm sure it probably is, although the RMT have definitely screwed up before, but if that is the case, then whilst having sympathy (still) with station staff as I understand their fears about their jobs, I have NO sympathy with train operators or control room staff who don't book on for duty.
Although, I'm sure the RMT will wriggle a Health and Safety angle on it,
We wait and see what tomorrow will bring
You think the loss of supers won't affect the T/Ops and control room staff in a big way? I'm not convinced they don't both have serious cause for concern. Whilst I think ASLEF are probably right in not balloting for strike action (if only from the point of view of realpolitik) I have to say I'm on the side of any and all RMT and TSSA staff who observe the strike. Even if (which I think is naïve at best) we assume that the loss of jobs and corporate restructure isn't a sign of things to come across the tube as a whole - or we agree that that has no bearing on the issue at hand - and even if we buy the idea that this won't mean unstaffed stations (despite the fact that you can read many reports in this blog of stations such as SNA being unstaffed late at night and that's without a 24-hour tube) both parties are still gonna be hit hard by the reshuffle. As ASLEF Shrugged has pointed to, I don't think it's gonna be a lot of fun being a T/Op with a problem at a Local B station, where you might only have a CSA1 to help you out and the local AM-S a bit of a journey away. (And if this is the first step on the way to stations more regularly unmanned (and, frankly, that seems to be what's written on the wall) then it's gonna be an almighty nuisance getting a train on its way if, say, you have a problem with in-cab CCTV). This, I think, applies with even more force to the people in the control room, who I can only imagine will see their workload go up substantially and who will have a much bigger job getting anything fixed again without supers on the ground at every station. As far as I can see, this is like being a colonel in the army and being told that all your experienced, well-trained, well-qualified Majors and Captains are gonna be replaced by a good number of extra lieutentants and a few lieutenant colonels. Or, if that analogy doesn't work for you, as far as I can see, it just means fewer of the right people in the right place at the right time, which I can only imagine will make dealing with faults, getting a service going, dealing with customer incidents and all the rest of it much harder. Additionally, it remains to be seen what effect this is gonna have on stations, but if a contractor makes a mess of things on a station one night - which is a pain in the bottom for the control room staff as much as anyone - there might not be anyone with the experience of a super to get it right.
DeleteI don't work stations, I don't work trains, I don't work in a control room. I'm open to being corrected on any naïvities or misapprehensions on my part - maybe something will get worked out - but I can't begrudge the T/Ops and control room staff walking out. Additionally, I really can't begrudge anyone who works for LUL having an axe to grind with their management and I think the first anonymous commenter on this post has made a very fine point about what the future for all LUL staff is likely to be.
I do agree with all you've said TUT, and if there is a bigger risk for safety etc, then I stand corrected in my views.
ReplyDeleteBUT, I would still say to the RMT, either ballot your T/Ops and control staff and if they vote yes, even though the majority eligible to vote may not bother, then fair enough, strike. Otherwise, there seems no mandate to me, so striking or not turning up shouldn't be happening.
However, it is, and along with the rest of the travelling public, I'll be using the trains. God help me, I use Greater Anglia :(
:( Best of luck on the mainline
DeleteIt would be wrong of me - the casual observer, not even a member of staff - to say one way or the other whether it will affect safety. I will go as far, though, as saying that section 12 exists for a reason and I really can't believe that the reduction in staff numbers (especially the loss of supers and DSMs and the restructuring at that level) can help the safety record of the tube - which has been so good and much improved since the King's X fire.
Well, that's the last of my 2 cents spent, but I'll try and remember to go down to the post office tomorrow and change up some more of my pounds :P
So, did you cross the picket line? I did not, and was faced with a 'return to work' interview later and now a threat that this is actionable under LU's attendance policy?
ReplyDeleteSo TFL spent millions making LO stations up to the standards of LU. Now they're intent on turning LU stations into Silverlink Metro.
ReplyDeleteI think the unions could accept the loss of around 1000 jobs after a ritual protest. What they won't stomach is the re-grading/down-grading, reduction in wages, no idea of what grade anyone will be offered, what location, terms and conditions, annual leave etc; and no faith in the selection process. The idea that everyone can maintain their current salary by applying for a higher position is ludicrous and most people realise that for the majority that's not going to happen, if for no other reason that there aren't the number of jobs to go around.
ReplyDelete