Down the Tube

By New Worker correspondent

Two rail unions have rejected a pay offer for London Underground staff. First the Transport Salaried Staff Association (older readers will remember it as the Railway Clerks’ Association) described a one-year pay offer of 2.5 per cent as “derisory and well short of members aspirations”. The offer was conditional on the unions dropping claims relating to leave, meal breaks, maternity and paternity, working hours and annual leave entitlement.

General Secretary Manuel Cortes said: “I made it crystal clear to management at talks last week that this offer is nowhere near good enough. Sadly, we are now in dispute with London Underground and an industrial action ballot looks almost inevitable. This means strikes could take place as early as next month,” before saying the union is “available for further direct talks and are also prepared to go to ACAS, provided there are no pre-conditions and London Underground is able to make a substantial improvement to what’s on the table.”

RMT also said it had rejected the offer and was beginning preparations for a ballot of all tube members for both strike action and action short of a strike.

RMT’s Regional reps described the offer as “an insult to our tube members and makes it crystal clear that London Underground have no respect for us or the work that we do”. Mick Cash, RMT’s General Secretary, said the union is preparing for a ballot of members and added: “The union has made it clear that we are looking for substantial improvements in pay and the working conditions for our members who work round the clock to keep London moving and that we are prepared to fight to secure those objectives.”