RMT have announced strikes on 4/5 and 10/11
February which gives TSSA time to have their ballot and hold joint strikes should
they vote in favour but I’ve been hearing something strange around the mess
rooms. Apparently RMT have told their TOps
that they will not be asked to go out on strike or form
picket lines outside depots which if true means that while trains will be running
it will be a case of how many stations will be open.
Maybe RMT are thinking that if they involved the TOps LUL would try to stop the strike through the courts, keeping it stations
only means there are no loopholes that LUL could try to exploit. I really don’t know, perhaps the rumours are
false and in a few weeks’ time I’ll be strolling up to the depot gates to find
my RMT colleagues stood there with banners asking me not to cross the picket line.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
They are going to flood the system with 1000+ office bods as temporary station staff (ICSAs) and are asking former supervisors where I work (and elsewhere) if they want their licences back to work as ICSSs. Peter Hendy is slated to issue a "Call To Arms" to all TFL white-collar staff as soon as the RMT announce their first strike so this must be imminent, with recruitment road-shows at 55 Broadway, Palestra and other head offices buildings. They've ordered extra uniforms from Stores to make sure these inexperienced and poorly qualified people do not look out of place on the gateline. How do I know this? People shouldn't leave papers out on their desk! This is going to get very dirty alas.
ReplyDeleteThe former supervisors are only good if they've worked stations in the last six months, if not then their licenses aren't valid. And the office bods need to hold fire training licences in order to count towards minimum staffing levels. And the office bods could be TSSA anyway.
ReplyDeleteYes, TfL does want its white collar staff to train up and man the stations. The general consensus among us office bods is that TfL can shove its call to arms up its corporate a*se. Well, those of us who are union members anyway. It's an absolute disgrace that the organisation is trying to set staff against staff, whatever the arguments about the future of ticket offices.
DeleteWell two people in my area have been asked (both refused) and they certainly have been out of the grade for more than 6 months (in fact one was an RCI after being an SS). The paperwork I've seen refers to getters 'waivers' to overcome issues like this. I can't forward you scans of it as I sent the lot off to Unity House.
ReplyDeleteA senior manager who is very involved in the LU150 steam train operation has just done a 2-day course which apparently allows him to work as an SS during a strike. This person is an engineer, who has only ever held one operational post (Area Manager, in the 1980s), yet is deemed safe to run a station during a strike!
ReplyDelete