Rail unions held a protest on Wednesday
February 11th outside London Underground head offices against the
first wave of threatened cuts of 1,000 jobs. Workers turned out to demand that
those responsible for running up the massive TFL/LU deficit of over £2.5
billion be sacked, and not the workers who are being threatened with the sack because
of senior management incompetence.
Against the opposition of the London
Mayor Ken Livingstone and anyone who knew or cared about transport in London,
Gordon Brown insisted that Metronet be awarded a Private Finance Initiative
contract for the maintenance of most of the London Underground. The rest of the work was given to Tube Lines. Metronet duly
went belly up amid great scandal, leaving a huge black hole in TfL and LUL’s
finances. This is the heart of the financial crisis gripping London’s public
transport provision.
Union reps quickly became aware that the management consultation was nothing
but a sham. Management are attempting to undermine former Metronet employees’
"jobs for life deal". This will have a knock on effect for all our Metronet
staff.
Also management tried to dictate who the RMT could or could not bring to the
meeting. They choose their representatives. We have the right to choose ours.
In
response to news that at least 1,000 jobs would be cut and fears that thousands
more were under threat, RMT said that any move attempt to impose compulsory
redundancies would be met with a ballot for industrial action. Accordingly a
Metronet strike committee has been called for Friday to discuss balloting on
the issues.
“Once
again it seems if you are a banker you get protection, but if you are part of a
team providing a public service you don’t,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said
today
“There
is no way that London’s transport workers should be made to pay for the failure
of the bankers and privateers whose greed has created the crisis our economy is
now in.
“And
there is no way that redundancies on this scale can be implemented without
affecting the level of service.
“If
the Mayor is looking for efficiencies he should bring the Tube Lines PFI
contracts back in house, because they are still draining huge sums of public
money from London’s transport budget.
“It is scandalous that loyal Tube workers
doing their best to provide a service to the public should have to pay with
their jobs for a financial crisis that is none of their making,” RMT general
secretary Bob Crow said today.
