The RMT has confirmed today that it has begun balloting service control centre, ticket staff and gate line maintenance engineers for ‘strike action and action short of a strike in two separate disputes over jobs, pay and conditions of service’.
Proposals by London Underground regarding the move of Piccadilly Line Service Control to Hammersmith Service Control Centre have raised a ‘range of union concerns that the management refuse to address’.
In a separate dispute, ticketing and barrier engineering company Cubic Transportation Services have ‘point blank refused’ to discuss RMT’s pay claim and an Olympic bonus, the union said.
The company have ‘instead said that they are not prepared to give an Olympic bonus, have offered a paltry 2.5 % pay rise and have total rejected totally RMT claims for a shorter working week’. Rates of pay also vary, with ‘many people on individual contracts who will receive no pay rise’.
RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:
“Both of these disputes are about protecting our member’s jobs, working conditions and standards of living in the face of aggressive and bullying management tactics that leave us no choice but to ballot for action.
“RMT remains available for talks but no one should underestimate the level of anger amongst both of these groups of workers.”
