Union warns over Tube volunteers

12 July 2011 Last updated at 04:18 GMT Union claims volunteers could be used for crowd control at busy Tube stations There could be "lethal consequences" if London Underground uses volunteers to guide passengers during the 2012 Olympics, a union has warned.

The RMT union said using "non-trained staff" at busy stations was a "recipe for disaster".

The union claims volunteers will be used for crowd control but Transport for London (TfL) insists they will only give travel information.

It added its trained customer service staff will be out assisting customers.

The RMT called on London Underground to reverse plans to cut 650 station staff jobs saying the need to use volunteers to fill in 400 to 600 shifts during the Games, "demolishes" the firm's case for job cuts.

'Bursting point'

The union claim volunteers, who will be recruited to help people with so-called "way finding", will be in effect managing the crowd at busy stations.

RMT leader Bob Crow said: "Using unqualified, non-professional, non-trained staff at key crowd control pressure points is a recipe for disaster with potentially lethal consequences.

"With the Tube already at bursting point, and with millions more expected for the Olympics, the last thing needed is wholly unprepared volunteers controlling hundreds of thousands of passengers through stations like Oxford Circus or Stratford."

He said the RMT is now calling on LUL to reverse the 650 jobs cuts and to "get back to the safe and sensible policy of having trained operational railway workers carrying out safety-critical operational railway tasks".

A Tfl spokesman said: "The RMT is quite wrong - all London Underground staff carrying out safety critical work on stations now and during the Olympics are and will be licensed.

"We have developed extensive staffing plans for the busy Olympics period which will see existing rostered station staff supported and supplemented by Revenue Control staff, LU's Special Requirements Team of flexible station staff and operational trainers who are all operationally licensed."

He said information volunteers, who do not carry out safety critical work, will be utilised to provide customers with advice on their onward journey and directional information around stations as it frequently does during large events.

"We'll meet the challenge of the Games by having our trained customer service staff out on stations where they can assist customers, not behind ticket office windows," he added.

View the original article here

Union preparing for strike vote

21 June 2011 Last updated at 07:46 GMT Unison general secretary Dave Prentis' keynote address

The UK's second largest union is preparing to strike over pension reform as it enters the first day of its annual conference on Tuesday.

In his opening speech, Unison general secretary Dave Prentis will confirm his willingness to negotiate, but also the plan to ballot members if talks fail.

"While we hope for the best, we prepare for the worst," said a spokeswoman for the union.

Negotiations with the government over pension reform resume on 27 June.

Speaking to the BBC on Tuesday morning, Mr Prentis warned that any industrial action was likely to be a protracted fight.

"It is quite clear that this coalition will not move if there is one day of industrial action, it will take sustained action, and we will not be starved back like the miners," he said.

'When not if'

Some 2,000 delegates from Unison - which represents workers in healthcare, utilities, local government, police support and teaching - are meeting in Manchester over four days.

Dave Prentis: "Of course we don't want to knock the UK economy ... but what else do we do?"

Other unions have announced plans to strike on 30 June, however Unison says it would need more time to organise a vote among its 1.3 million members.

It was "now a case of when talks break down, not if they break down" said the Unison spokeswoman, following a speech in London by Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander on Friday that was described by unions as "highly inflammatory".

Mr Alexander accused the unions of spreading "scare stories" about planned reforms, which he claimed were "not an assault" on pensions.

He added that while he was prepared to discuss the detailed implementation of the proposals, the government would be sticking to the broad principles.

Meanwhile, Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has urged unions not to fall into a government "trap" by striking over plans to reform public sector pensions.

Danny Alexander: "I think that's a very fair and balanced offer"

Among the changes to public sector pensions that Unison objects to:

pension contributions will increase from 6% to an average 9% of paythe retirement age is to be extended to 66 for men and women by April 2020the inflation linkage of benefits will be switched from the retail prices index to the consumer prices index, which is typically lower

Besides pensions reform, the union also opposes the hundreds of thousands of job losses it expects to result from planned government spending cuts, and the public sector pay freeze, which comes at a time when inflation is running at 4.5%.

Motions to be considered by the conference include an explicit call for strike action over the "coalition's attack on public services".

View the original article here