Two weeks after ASLEF declared the result of the strike
ballot it appears that management are starting to realise that they can just
stick their heads in the sand and hope that everything goes away. On Tuesday at ACAS the unions made it plain
that unless the new roster sheets that included Night Tube were withdrawn there
could be no negotiation and yesterday management conceded by withdrawing the
sheets. We’ll be back at ACAS today but
there’s still a long way to go and considering that it has taken five months to
get this far I’m not brimming with confidence that things will be resolved before
Wednesday night.
To remind everyone what the situation is, LU have offered
a pay rise of 0.75% this year after initially offering 0.5% with RPI next year. Our previous deal was RPI+0.5% with 2% minimum, RPI in February was 1.1% so they’re not even offering us inflation. Other train drivers on the privatised TOCs are
getting 2% or above and that is the yardstick by which we compare ourselves. For Night Tube they’re offering a £250 one-off bonus for
TOps working at affected depots, another £250 if the deal was settled by the
end of June which obviously didn’t happen and another £250 after 3 months of
Night Tube if there had been no trouble, which seems unlikely.
When our union reps refused this LU threw their toys out
of the pram and declared that if we didn’t agree there would be no pay rise at
all but when that failed they begged the unions to go to ACAS. At the first meeting management refused to
sit in the same room as our reps and at the second they sat there for 20
minutes simply remarking that our position was “noted”.
The next seven days could be very interesting......
Keep getting e-mails from management saying one thing happened in ACAS and another from the Unions saying the exact opposite. Clearly one of them is telling porkies (or possibly both). Why can't we see the minutes of these meetings? They are public servants and Union bods, we pay for both so why can't I know exactly what was said?
ReplyDeleteGood shout. Nothing worse than being kept in the dark.
DeleteI would imagine that the minutes are taken by ACAS but I don't know why they aren't published. I'm on AL at the moment so I haven't seen management's comments but if the choice is between believing the reps we elected to get us the best deal and management who are ignoring our agreements in order to impose unpopular shift patterns I know who I'm going to trust.
DeleteAt this moment, there will be three sets of 'minutes'
DeleteOne each from ACAS, ASLEF and tfl
They will have to 'agree' these next time they sit down together
(You know how it works, from your branch meetings)
Having said that, thanks; for driving me safely, when I get on your trains
"You may be, a Hammer; I'll forgive you, that.
But you get me around, This wonderful town."
No more meetings until Monday, it seems that as far as Management is concerned nothing is that urgent that, it can mean having to give up having the weekend off. Which is ironic as the dispute in the main is about weekend working. John Leach from the RMT has said on the 'London Calling RMT website that Management are insisting that all new rosters are scrutinised by local reps. John Leach has instructed local reps NOT to scrutinise any new rosters. And so this is where we are at, with no progress likely on Monday.
ReplyDelete