Events | 2009.06.20
RMT and transport chiefs in tube strike talks
Tube union and Transport for London aiming to resolve dispute that led to last week\'s 48-hour strike
Talks aimed at resolving a dispute that led to a 48-hour tube strike last week are due to be held later today.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers\' union (RMT) staged a two-day strike after talks over job protection between the union leadership and London Underground broke down .
The two sides will meet early this afternoon for preliminary talks under the chairmanship of the conciliation service Acas to try to break a deadlock over job losses.
An RMT spokesman said: "We are going in positively and are seeking to negotiate a settlement and we are positive about the prospects of achieving that."
A TfL spokesman stressed that today\'s talks were preliminary, with a view to full negotiations next week.
Last week the RMT\'s leader, Bob Crow, accused Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, of "playing politics" with the tube by deliberately intervening to scupper a last-minute deal.
Johnson, the chair of TfL, dismissed the allegation as "completely untrue". Earlier this week he described the RMT leadership as "obscurantist" and "difficult".
The union originally tabled a 5% pay rise in the autumn and demanded the promise of no compulsory redundancies for all workers amid plans by transport bosses to cut 1,000 jobs.
The RMT rejected a five-year pay deal put forward by London Underground, part of Transport for London, but last week agreed to put a revised two-year pay offer worth 1% this year, and 0.5% above inflation next year, to its membership. It insists it has not agreed to present an alternative four-year deal put forward by TfL to members.
Johnson, who faced criticism last week over his failure to meet the RMT leadership and deliver on a manifesto promise to deliver a no-strike agreement with tube unions, said he saw multi-year pay deals as a creative way of binding unions into a no-strike deal. However, such a deal would not stop unions from balloting for industrial action on issues such as health and safety concerns and job losses.
The union also has concerns about the tube management\'s use of disciplinary procedures, which the leadership says are not rigorously applied – a claim disputed by TfL.
The main sticking point is over job protection for staff. TfL says that 1,000 jobs must go as a result of inheriting 7,000 staff from Metronet, the infrastructure giant that collapsed and was brought back under public control last year.
This has led to the duplication of many roles, mainly in administration, legal and finance departments, as well as among contractors.
The RMT is pressing for a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies despite assurances from TfL that it aims to achieve the cuts through voluntary means and that no frontline staff such as train drivers, station staff or engineers will lose their jobs.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/19/tube-strike-talks
