London
Underground has announced plans to close 40 main ticket offices, various
secondary offices and restrict opening times on many
others.
Apart
from the 240 jobs and promotional opportunities that we will lose, the service
to the travelling public will be decimated.
At
a meeting with management on the 23rd May, the Unions were told that
the cuts were not negotiable and that they were only there to consult and fine
tune them.
This type of management bullying was seen in
our last pay dispute. They bully away until they split the unions and then go
for the jugular. We must not allow
ourselves to become split on this issue. At grass roots level we need to be
holding cross union meetings to explain to all staff the implications of the
cuts to them. Pressure should be brought to bare on the leadership of the TSSA
and the RMT to ensure that they keep their nerve and fight to protect these
positions.
We
need the general public on board and the passenger services bodies. People need
to know that their service is being cut.
An
online petition has been launched at: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/tubetickets
Please
visit the site and sign it, urge others to sign and distribute it widely.
We
are hoping to set up laptops outside stations to try and secure thousands of
signatures.
The
main attack will have to be industrial action.
With management refusing to negotiate the Unions have no choice but to
take some form of action. Keeping the Unions united will as usual be the
hardest thing.
The
TSSA has put its case and wants to see ticket offices selling Mars Bars and
crisps. They seem happy to let the jobs go as long as the procedures are
carried out correctly.
The
RMT has another view, that the cuts are withdrawn or we take action.
The
oyster card is the reason given for the closures. Management want all sales to
be at pass agents or on line. This is fine until the card goes wrong as they so
often do. The online service sends the customer back to ticket office to sort
out problems. What happens when we are not there?
