Tube drivers threaten industrial action

[aleister crowley]

Tube drivers are to be balloted for industrial action it was announced today after claims that staff cuts were endangering passengers.
The news, which has been met with fierce criticism, comes just days after driver members secured a ?52,000 pay deal.
The RMT Union said they are consulting with London Underground drivers over claims that passengers had suffered the 'worst week' of chaos on the Tube because of signal failures, faulty trains and staffing problems.
New procedures for reversing a train, and faults in platform camera systems are also being blamed for problems incurred across the network.
The RMT said its members will vote on whether to take action short of strike - which is likely to cause disruptions across all Tube lines.
The news which comes in the same week that staff received a five per cent pay rise has caused a backlash among some MPs who called the move 'unacceptable'.
Conservative MPs. Esher and Walton MP Dominic Raab, who has campaigned for strike laws to be tightened, condemned the RMT's outrageous' demands.
'These latest threats just demonstrate that there is no point appeasing militant union leaders like Bob Crow,' he told the Standard.
He added: 'This latest brinkmanship strengthens the case for a minimum threshold for industrial action, because Londoners should not be held hostage by a hard-line minority.'
Mark Field, MP for Cities of London and Westminster, added: 'Long-suffering commuters will be dismayed that so soon after their bumper pay offer the RMT are threatening yet more industrial action.'
All 15,000 TfL staff have signed up to a four-year deal, including a five per cent increase this year, backdated to April, followed by three years at Retail Price Index-currently running at five per cent-plus 0.5 per cent.
Tube bosses said the deal 'offers stability and the prospect of no industrial action over pay until at least 2015'.
The inflation-busting award comes at a time when millions of workers are seeing only paltry rises, or even pay freezes.

The London Underground drivers will be on almost twice the national average full-time salary of around ?26,000.

Speaking about the payrise, Tory MP Dominic Raab said: 'At a time of financial restraint for businesses and families, this is daylight robbery that will cost users and taxpayers dearly.'
Emma Boon of the TaxPayers' Alliance said: 'Taxpayers will be left fuming that bullyboy tactics have been rewarded with such a generous deal.
'The size of this inflation-busting pay increase is insulting to commuters who have faced the misery of repeated tube strikes in recent years.'
The RMT said todays ballot has nothing to do with pay but will face criticism as other workers receive an average pay increase of 2.5 per cent.

Bob Crow, the RMT leader, said he had ordered the ballot because of ongoing problems, including doors on the new Victoria line trains.

Drivers have had to over-ride the new system because doors get stuck open.
He said: 'RMT has demanded an end to the reckless policy of expecting drivers to override door fail-safe systems after a potentially fatal incident in which a passenger jumped from a moving train and another was caught in its open doors.


'It is our members who have to deal with the consequences of these ill-conceived policies.
The ballot result is due at the end of the month.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1aFPWw820

That's an absolute fckin scandal.

I don't see how anyone can justify paying a tube driver over ?50k a year when soldiers are being paid ?17k a year,they put their lives at risk every single day and actually do work rather then sit there and press a few buttons every hour.

[GastonJ]

Ahh another one. What we should do is drop *everyone's* pay down to the level of minimum wage, because no-one is allowed to have a decent income or pension. That way you'll be happy?

However this one's about safety, but then again the conservative party and their mouthpiece the taxpayers alliance don't care about safety, "pay people less and if someone dies we'll find someone else to blame"

I have to say the Tory propaganda is serving them just as well as it did during Marggie Thatchers time. Some people have less memory than the average goldfish, although goldfish didn't vote for the government, mind you no-one voted for a coalition...

You should be saying "our troops should be paid more" rather than train drivers should be paid less.

[bobwill]

And pensioners should be paid more instead of having to pay more council tax to pay the gold plated pensions of puplic sector

[GastonJ]

awww my heart bleeds for you, did you forget to save for your pension like the public sector workers have been doing all their working lives?

[aleister crowley]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHu_cfy33bY"]london underground song lyrics ? - YouTube[/ame]

[bobwill]

awww my heart bleeds for you, did you forget to save for your pension like the public sector workers have been doing all their working lives?

I did but a asshole called gordon brown stole it the bastard and he threw all the money away the asshole

[GastonJ]

So just because Gordon took yours (and everyone elses) you wish no-one to have a reasonable pension. There's no logic in reducing everyone elses pension down. Do you really think that bankers and MP's will reduce theirs to match? I think not.

the call should be more like "raise the general standards of pension" to a decent level.