Strike talks continue as RMT appeal to ASLEF

Today at noon there will be more talks between the RMT and London Underground in an attempt to stop next week's Tube strike.

Bob Crow said "We hope that the Mayor, who was full of praise for his transport staff earlier this year when they struggled against the snow to try and keep London moving, will issue a clear mandate to his senior staff to lift the threat of pay cuts and compulsory redundancies and to rebuild the industrial relations machinery on the tube." Although Dave Hill from The Guardian wouldn't count on Boris's help here.



The RMT seem desperate to pull out all the stops with this strike and I've been sent a memo, which I believe to be true, of the RMT attempting to get ASLEF members to join them during the strike.

It also doesn't seem to hold much of an opinion for Boris either. "LUL's boss Boris Johnson has a deep seated political hatred for all unions and an ideological aim of seeing us broken on the underground" is highlighted in bold lettering.

It's worrying if this is a serious suggestion that members of another union should change their allegiance temporarily to support a strike that ASLEF members have not had an opportunity to vote on? It sounds very desperate and I wonder if it's even legal.

You can see the memo in full here, and I'd very keen to hear your views. Either way very interesting times ahead and we'll see what today's talks bring.

UPDATE - New offer from LU - Just heard the following from The Guardian's Dave Hill - "London Underground has today tabled what I'm told is a "fresh pay offer" to the RMT, Aslef and the TSSA. It covers two years instead of the five previously proposed and which the RMT rejected. It also proposes setting aside matters relating to the Olympics for now with a view to separate discussions.

My information is the all three unions have taken the offer away for consideration. The immediate big question is whether this development will persuade the RMT will to call off next week's strike action....

LU Interim Managing Director Richard Parry says, "There is now no reason whatsoever for the RMT leadership to continue to call for strike action next week." Bob Crow says, "The talks have been adjourned until Monday. Both sides will now consider their position and will get back around the table at 9.30 on Monday morning.."

Thanks also Dave for linking to the RMT memo above!

Talks to avert Tube strike break down

Looks like hopes of next week's strike on the London Underground being called off are slim, as Bob Crow said "Industrial relations with TfL and LUL have completely broken down". The union leader accused TfL of "rank hypocrisy" in rejecting rejecting a 5% pay rise request while paying 123 TfL managers more than £100,000 a year.

The RMT's recent press release states "The pay figures show that five TfL/LUL chiefs earn more than a quarter of a million pounds a year plus bonuses. Fifteen TfL bosses, including the director of marketing, earn more than the Prime Minister."


Despite Crow's claims of completely broken down relations, TfL say they are still ready to talk at any time to try to avert the strike. A spokesperson said "Rather than pay cuts, TfL's offer actually guarantees LU employees real pay increases each year for the next five years - few Londoners can claim the same level of security.

"It has already been announced that TfL senior managers will see their salaries frozen this year.

"The RMT leadership should start talking to us rather than threatening strike action that is supported by less than 30% of their membership, will lose their members pay and will cause unnecessary frustration and disruption to Londoners."

Who knows there may be a last minute break through, but it's unlikely, so get prepared for 48 hours of no Tube from 7pm on Tuesday 9th June, running through to 7pm on Thursday 11th June.

Art on the Underground Giveaway

To celebrate the Jubilee Line's 30th birthday, some limited edition prints are being given out at certain stations from 7am - 12pm today - 2nd June & the 3rd June. The print by Richard Long is called One thing leads to another – Everything is connected and "contrasts the diverse landscape that the Jubilee line travels through, from Stanmore to Stratford, with the rugged landscape of the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland, which was traversed by Long on foot on one of the many walks he has made as an integral part of his art."


The prints are available at Stanmore, Wembley Park, Finchley Road, Baker Street, Green Park, Westminster, London Bridge, Canada Water, Canary Wharf and Stratford London Underground stations.

Full details are on the Tate Britain's website & Transport for London's Platform for Art. Thanks to Jemimah Knight for the heads up on this.

Tube Updates in Handy Pie Charts

Thanks muchly to Brian Pigeon who gave me the heads up or rather beaks up to a nice little visual look at the status of London Underground Lines:


tubeupdates.com was developed by Ben Dodson who said: ""Ever since the Transport For London site was updated, I've wondered why they didn't provide a basic way of accessing their data which so many developers could make use of. I expected that they would have an RSS feed of the tube status updates but instead the only way to access this information was through a set of pre-built widgets. Not any more."

My idea was to have a fully featured REST-ful API that would allow any developer to instantly query what state the London Tube network was in. As a bonus, this would include the Docklands Light Railway and if possible would feature the individual messages that each line has in order to specify exactly why there is a delay or if any stations are closed, etc. A distant dream was to be able to search back through the various status changes over time so that other developers could build applications such as reliability graphs or time checkers."

When number of bloggers & myself met TfL last year we asked why their API wasn't open to developers, so it's good to see that people are trying to handle what little data is open to people. Surely some tools like this on their website or working closely with developers (many of whom have a lot more time their hands in the current economic climate) would benefit everyone?

Who knows it may happen in the future. But in the meantime while away some time seeing how reliable your line is, & feel free to get in touch with Ben if you've got any questions on the tool.

Walk the Piccadilly Line challenge

Quite a number of us will be walking into work if next week's Tube strike goes ahead, and this is just a quick reminder of train operator, Edward Spencer, challenge. He'll be running the entire length of the Piccadilly Line this Saturday to raise money for the NSPCC.


He said "You can find out about the blood sweat and tears (all mine!) and see some of the training runs which I linked to on my website"