14 June 2017
RMT Press Office:
RMT to ballot Piccadilly Line/Tube Lines workshop staff for action over two-tier workforce.
Tube union RMT will begin balloting workshop staff in the Piccadilly Line workshops at Northfields and Cockfosters Depots today for both strike action and action short of a strike over an attempt by Tube Lines to create a two-tier workforce by driving a coach and horses through current agreements and recruiting 35 new staff on fixed term contracts. The ballot will close on the 4th July.
The company say that additional work is necessary to enable 24-hour lifting of the trains to replace damaged wheels due to problems with rail head contamination from leaf fall and wheel flats on the line. RMT has raised this issue, and the safety implications, repeatedly and is appalled that Tube Lines are now planning to address it by ripping up current agreements, threatening job security and opening the door to wholesale casualisation.
RMT’s position is that all new posts should be recruited on a permanent basis and the union is now balloting in support of that principle.
Mick Cash, RMT General Secretary, said:
“RMT will not sit back and watch while Tube Lines rip up agreements and look to open the door to wholesale casualisation of the workforce.
“It was RMT members who raised the problems with the brakes and wheel sets on the Piccadilly Line in the first place and it is appalling that the company have seized on these serious issues to try and threaten long-term job security.
“The ballot opens today and the union remains available for talks.”
Ends