EVERY JOB MATTERS – DEFENDING JOBS ON LONDON UNDERGROUND (LUL/14/5)
Further to my last circular, a resolution has been received from our Central Line East Branch concerning the Every Job Matters Campaign and highlighting the issue of Driverless Trains. Just last week London Underground unveiled the design of automatic trains which they believe will run without a Drivers by the mid 2020s. The union is fully committed to campaigning against Driverless trains which will be disastrous. Not only will cause the loss of jobs but we believe it is fundamentally an unsafe way of operating.
Although the recent focus has been on station staff, due to the immediacy of the “Fit for the future” proposals, we have always defended members’ jobs across all grades and functions within London Underground. There is a concerted plan at London Underground to slash jobs and impose “Condem” government led austerity. Apart from their plans for stations, they plan automation in train maintenance, engineering, service control and train operation. Our position on all these issues will be included in our future campaign materials and with be raised in negotiations.
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It is important to also see he timing of this announcement by the Mayor of London. Ever the opportunist, this announcement came out the same day as the LUL dispute announcement.
The reality is, that LUL have not got the money to push this through on anything like a medium term agenda. LUL is not the same as the docklands railway, there are not escape walkways along the length of the tunnel. Passenger density is massive and people are still needed to be on the train.
This is purely semantics and an attempt by a populist politician, rather than good old fashioned engineering and economic accountancy.
Boris, if you want to keep a promise, keep the ticket offices open instead