On 5 Feb, 10:09, chunky munky wrote:
Theres seems to be a threat of another tube strike in the air
according to the radio. Anyone know what its about this time or is it
just the usual tub thumping over some non existent issue to squeeze
another pay rise / shorter working hours out of TfL?

It is over reducing LU Staff responsibilty and contracting out some
station work to agency staff and security firms. This will further
fragment the railway and remove operational responsibilty that there
currently is from being all in the same company. I know you have
complained about Arnos Grove before Boltar, if LU's plan went through
then things would be much worse. The vast majority of LU staff do take
pride in their work - just look at stations like Northwood or
Southfields and compare them to similar National Rail ones! LU are
trying to remove this.

Hmm. The only contracting of station staff that's been proposed is at
Heathrow Terminal 5, and that's because it'll be managed by BAA and
not LU. The rest appears to be scaremongering nonsense from the
unions, who're spooked that the London Overground model might actually
work just as well as LU at keeping stations safe and clean despite
being contracted and lower-paying.

If there's an official statement from LU that they're planning to
replace employed staff in LU stations with contract staff[*], then
I'll retract the above...
[*] yes, OK, ELLx, whatever.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org