Drivers on Piccadilly and Hammersmith and City Lines to strike on 6th and 7th December
TUBE UNION RMT confirmed today that drivers on the Piccadilly and Hammersmith and City Lines are to strike for 24 hours on the 6th and 7th December in two separate disputes over a breakdown in industrial relations, breaches of procedures and bullying and harassment of staff.
The action in both disputes will run from between 21.30 hours on Tuesday 6th December and 21.29 hours on Wednesday 7th December 2016.
400 drivers on the Piccadilly Line will take strike action in a dispute over breaching agreements, procedures and policies which amounts to a wholesale breakdown in industrial relations between the union and London Underground.
The Piccadilly Line is the fourth busiest on the London Underground network and serves the terminals at Heathrow Airport.
The dispute is over a combination of issues including:
- Failure to properly administer LUL’s SPAD policy with continued threats to our members’ role as drivers
- Failure to respond to members concerns regarding the quality of training with management refusing machinery meetings and reneging on previous commitments
- The assertion from the Director of Employee Relations stating that staff other than the driver have the final say on the serviceability and safety of a train, going against agreed instructions
- Continued breaches and misuse of a number of LUL policies to the detriment of members, including but not exclusive to the Attendance at Work Policy and the Harassment and Bullying Policy.
The dispute on the Hammersmith and City Line is over heavy handed and aggressive management and a flagrant disregard for agreed policies and procedures.
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said:
“This dispute on the Hammersmith and City Line is about the basic issues of protecting working conditions of our members and defending agreements from attempts to drive a coach and horses through them. The management are out of control and the anger at their failure to follow procedures has boiled over.
“This breakdown in industrial relations should never have been allowed to happen and if agreements and processes had been adhered to from the off the package of issues at the heart of the dispute could have been resolved through the joint machinery.
“In the separate dispute involving drivers on the Piccadilly Line, safety is again a major factor and is tied in with the ripping up of policies and procedures and ignoring warnings from staff. Our members have been left exposed and vulnerable and we have no choice but to blow the whistle before lasting damage is done.
“The union remains available for talks in both disputes.”