Aslef strikes over Trains Modernisation plan

[Dstock7080]

ASLEF has announced strike action for Monday 8 April and Saturday 4 May over management failure to guarantee no changes to working practices on LU:

ASLEF drivers on London Underground will strike on April 8th and May 4th.

The ASLEF Executive Committee has decided to give London Underground notice that our members will strike on Monday April 8th and Saturday May 4th over management's continued failure to give assurances that there will be no changes to agreements and our members' terms and conditions of employment...

www.aslefdistrict8.org

London Underground drivers to strike in April and May, says Aslef https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68614493

 

[YorkRailFan]

ASLEF has announced strike action for Monday 8 April and Saturday 4 May over management failure to guarantee no changes to working practices on LU:

ASLEF drivers on London Underground will strike on April 8th and May 4th.

The ASLEF Executive Committee has decided to give London Underground notice that our members will strike on Monday April 8th and Saturday May 4th over management's continued failure to give assurances that there will be no changes to agreements and our members' terms and conditions of employment...

www.aslefdistrict8.org

Tube train drivers who are members of ASLEF, the train drivers’ union, which represents 96% of the train drivers in Britain, will strike on Monday 8 April and Saturday 4 May.

Finn Brennan, ASLEF’s full-time organiser on London Underground, explained: ‘ASLEF Tube train drivers will strike in April and May in a long-running dispute over London Underground’s failure to give assurances that changes to our members’ terms and conditions will not be imposed without agreement and that all existing agreements will be honoured.

‘Despite a previous commitment to withdraw plans for massive changes to drivers’ working conditions, London Underground management has established a full-time team of managers preparing to impose their plans.

‘They want drivers to work longer shifts, spending up to 25% more time in the cab, and to remove all current working agreements in the name of “flexibility and efficiency”.

‘Everyone knows what these management buzz words really mean. It’s about getting people to work harder and longer for less. Management has also failed to deliver on commitments given to us on making drivers’ cabs secure, on police numbers on Night Tube’ and on training. Our members simply don’t believe what LU management tells them anymore. ASLEF are, as always, ready to talk, but we want to see real action from management – not easily broken promises.’

Note:

ASLEF drivers voted by more than 98% in favour of strike action on a turnout of over 70%, well in excess of the legal threshold to take industrial action.

These are the second and third days of action on this issue; we also went on strike for one day in March last year.

Quoted from link above.

This seems to be a working conditions and management dispute and not a pay dispute unlike the dispute the RMT had with LU.

 

[Thirteen]

Kind of strange the strikes are a month apart.

I wonder if we might see intervention from the Mayor if things are sorted for either date.

 

[Goldfish62]

Kind of strange the strikes are a month apart.

I wonder if we might see intervention from the Mayor if things are sorted for either date.

The first strike is during the pre-election period so it would be nigh-on impossible for the Mayor to intervene.

The second strike is two days after the mayoral election so it may not be Khan dealing with it.

I imagine the Tory candidate probably thinks the timing of the strikes will help her election bid.

 

[Dstock7080]

Kind of strange the strikes are a month apart.

Two separate pay periods, so staff may only lose one day

 

[AlbertBeale]

I wonder whether "Modernisation" with no quote marks - as in the thread title - is prejudging anything here?

 

[Mawkie]

This seems to be a working conditions and management dispute and not a pay dispute unlike the dispute the RMT had with LU.

Worth noting that the RMT have a current mandate (and are in the process of seeking to renew for the 6th time) for the same pensions and working conditions dispute. They haven't announced any future strike days.

 

[Snow1964]

Am I reading it right,
Strike action because there is no guarantee that nothing will change, basically striking over speculation

 

[bramling]

Am I reading it right,
Strike action because there is no guarantee that nothing will change, basically striking over speculation

Sort of.

The thing is that everyone knows there’s stuff going on behind closed doors, and LU has a vile tendency for rumours to circulate, what happens is those rumours become louder and more frequent, then turn out to be largely true.

It’s hard to think of any other business which lauds itself on being seemingly permanently in a “state of change”. Those who have been around a while come to learn that this is really the product of managements lasting for increasingly short lengths of time, so new managements arrive and start implementing stuff which to them seems fresh and new, not realising that it’s all part of a perennial revolving door. Unfortunately for staff this is all highly demoralising, so it’s no surprise if unions want to try and be ahead of the game. LU has increasingly become a case study in how NOT to conduct employee relations and get the best out of staff.

Worth also remembering that LU has carried out a number of re-orgs over recent years which have turned out to be total disasters. The Fit For The Future - Stations being the prime example, but not the only one. LU must be world leader in cutting its nose off to spite its face. LU’s real problem is their managers aren’t effective enough to make things work, with this fundamental problem they can re-organise to their hearts content, but whatever structure they have will always suffer from this basic flaw. Their management simply isn’t effective enough, but they seem to think the solution is to throw all the pieces up in the air and hope they land better, which of course they don’t.

 

[Dstock7080]

Am I reading it right,
Strike action because there is no guarantee that nothing will change, basically striking over speculation

Management has issued a document to the Unions titled “The Trains Modernisation Plan” suggesting many working practice changes, in a similar vein to The Company Plan of 1992, which some of us remember, that was eventually imposed by Management without Union agreement.

 

[Central]

Didn’t help with Company Plan lot of the people who were liable for big redundancy payments were union reps.

 

[Russel]

What exactly are these speculative changes that are concerning staff?

 

[Dstock7080]

Many are indicated in the ASLEF link in the first post:
- return of remote booking on/off (introduced with Company Plan and then abolished after dispute)
- changes to working hours parameters (earlier book on, later book off, removal of night shifts)
- end of fixed links, introduced to aid staying on same shift without regular changeovers (15+ years ago)
- reduction in spares cover, spares to be more flexible than currently
- walking and train preparation times to be cut, (suggestion of iPad book on/off in depots, when on train)
- standardised agreements across all locations, local agreements removed.
- train driving parameters changed

- changes to Attendance at Work procedures
- changes to Pension scheme, scheduled from September 2026

 

[Mawkie]

What exactly are these speculative changes that are concerning staff?

It was a formal proposition to the Trains Functional Council on 10th May 2023.

Many are indicated in the ASLEF link in the first post:...

You forgot the hideous cover week changes.

On the new fully integrated rosters:

1 in 10 weeks would be Advanced Cover weeks with 28 days notice of duties and rest days.

1 in 7 would be Flexible Cover weeks, with 50% of duties being given an early or late "window".

Rest days for the following week would be given on Thursday (so very short notice of a Sunday rest day for example);

Exact duty times would be given at 0400 the day before duty commencement.

It's worth clarifying that the remote booking on and off would be in your own time.

Some examples of which are:

If you're a Brixton driver, you could book on at Victoria Platform.

A Barking (C+H) driver could book on at Moorgate platform.

These book on locations could be unsupervised, which means my fitness for work can not be assessed, important information regarding disruption will not be conveyed, and no examination of the late notice information board in depots can be undertaken (this would apparently be transfered to an iPad, which would form part of our equipment).

I'm of the opinion that employers need to pay me for my time when I provide a service to that business, so I'm not in favour of giving them 20/30 minutes a day for nothing.

Of course, if I'm required to book on at a remote location and book off at a remote location on the same duty, it's not unreasonable to suggest this would add 60 minutes unpaid to my working day (which they are already extending under these proposals!)

If you multiply these timings across every duty, at every depot, on every day, it's fairly easy to see where the cost savings can be made. However, those savings are made at the expense of my work life balance.

 

[philosopher]

The Evening Standard is reporting that these strikes have now been cancelled.

Tube strike called off after talks between Aslef and TfL

A Tube strike that would have brought the London Underground to a standstill next Monday has been called off.

www.standard.co.uk

A Tube strike that would have brought the London Underground to a standstill next Monday has been called off.
The Tube drivers' union Aslef announced the breakthrough on Thursday afternoon after successful negotiations with representatives from Transport for London.

In my experience, tube strikes tend to get cancelled after negotiations.

 

[Dstock7080]

Trains Modernisation Plan shelved
Cab secure devise to now be fitted to all Stock by 2026
CDP Continuous Development Programme, to now consist of 3-days (has been 1 since Covid started)

 

[bramling]

Trains Modernisation Plan shelved
Cab secure devise to now be fitted to all Stock by 2026
CDP Continuous Development Procedure , to now consist of 3-days (has been 1 since Covid started)

One wonders how much money has been peed up the wall on this, in terms of the number of man hours spent working on this apparently shelved modernisation plan.

If only LU invested as much resource towards tackling salient issues like the severe shortage of available trains affecting multiple lines right now.

 

[Russel]

Trains Modernisation Plan shelved
Cab secure devise to now be fitted to all Stock by 2026
CDP Continuous Development Programme, to now consist of 3-days (has been 1 since Covid started)

What is a cab secure device?

 

[bramling]

What is a cab secure device?

Providing a more effective way to stop people entering a driver’s cab. Essentially a device which allows the driver to properly lock the door without override, but still allowing emergency access when the cab is empty or if the driver is incapacitated. Not really appropriate to go into any further detail but hopefully you get the idea.

There have been an increasing number of incidents where people have broken into cabs. This was already supposed to be on the agenda a few years back, but went on the backburner due to Covid.

Quite sad to reflect that a couple of generations ago cabs didn’t need any lock on the door at all.

 

[Russel]

Providing a more effective way to stop people entering a driver’s cab. Essentially a device which allows the driver to properly lock the door without override, but still allowing emergency access when the cab is empty or if the driver is incapacitated. Not really appropriate to go into any further detail but hopefully you get the idea.

There have been an increasing number of incidents where people have broken into cabs. This was already supposed to be on the agenda a few years back, but went on the backburner due to Covid.

Quite sad to reflect that a couple of generations ago cabs didn’t need any lock on the door at all.

Surprised it's took this long to agree to fitting something like this to be fair.

I agree though, it's a sad reflection on the world we live in.

 

[bramling]

Surprised it's took this long to agree to fitting something like this to be fair.

Yes the union have been pretty patient really. Considering this issue has been going on since well before Covid, having the whole fleet fitted by end-2026 isn’t earth shattering by any means.

 

[43066]

In my experience, tube strikes tend to get cancelled after negotiations.

Indeed, providing a marked contrast to the current position on the mainline, sadly!

Providing a more effective way to stop people entering a driver’s cab. Essentially a device which allows the driver to properly lock the door without override, but still allowing emergency access when the cab is empty or if the driver is incapacitated. Not really appropriate to go into any further detail but hopefully you get the idea.

There have been an increasing number of incidents where people have broken into cabs. This was already supposed to be on the agenda a few years back, but went on the backburner due to Covid.

Quite sad to reflect that a couple of generations ago cabs didn’t need any lock on the door at all.

It’s a little ridiculous that there hasn’t been something like that fitted previously. Cab security on the mainline isn’t all that great either, however the doors at least lock.

 

[bramling]

It’s a little ridiculous that there hasn’t been something like that fitted previously. Cab security on the mainline isn’t all that great either, however the doors at least lock.

It seems to be an issue that suddenly came to the fore with a spate of incidents in the mid to late 2010s. Never seemed to be a major problem before.

LU did make an interim modification just before Covid of fitting glass over the handles on all stocks, previously some of the new stocks had a card with a ring pull on it. The substitution of glass has improved things a bit, but the underlying issue is still there.

 

[DavyCrocket]

One wonders how much money has been peed up the wall on this, in terms of the number of man hours spent working on this apparently shelved modernisation plan.

If only LU invested as much resource towards tackling salient issues like the severe shortage of available trains affecting multiple lines right now.

And what nonsense project will they be moved on to now?

There are so many now that lack experience of running public transport operations that I don’t believe they are interested in fixing actual problems

 

[Recessio]

Any movement on those changes to cover and remote booking?

 

[Dstock7080]

Any movement on those changes to cover and remote booking?

As the Trains Modernisation Plan has been shelved so have these proposals

 

[ThameslinkUser]

I take it this date was selected to cover the 2024 stock introduction and thus in reality (1973 stock aside) the entire fleet will be fitted a lot sooner than 2026?

 

[185]

Well the railway's last Modernisation was all ticket offices closed, all guards fired and the railway descending to the seventh circle of hell, but Grant Shapps, the Mail & the Express said it was absolutely fine. Tis a terrible choice of phrase for any negotiation or press release.

 

[TrainBoy98]

Well the railway's last Modernisation was all ticket offices closed, all guards fired and the railway descending to the seventh circle of hell, but Grant Shapps, the Mail & the Express said it was absolutely fine. Tis a terrible choice of phrase for any negotiation or press release.

And to a lot of people "Modernisation" is synonymous with "closure" or "reduction" thanks to the BR "modernisation" plans

 

[Nym]

Surprised it's took this long to agree to fitting something like this to be fair.

I agree though, it's a sad reflection on the world we live in.

There are some significant technical challenges that the contracting organisation is required to understand.