London Underground workers prepare to fight on pay

by RMT activists on London Underground

The new Labour government seems to be seeking to avoid being pitched into conflict with the trade unions on day one. But one person who appears determined to bring it on is Labour’s London mayor, Sadiq Khan.

Khan’s Transport for London (TfL) managers have proposed a pay offer to both TfL and London Underground (LUL) workers of 3.3%. This will do little to address the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and the offer is linked to a sinister attempt to effectively remove TfL/LUL trade unions from negotiating pay in the future.

Tube Strikers at Action (2022)
Tube strikers at Acton (2022)
Photo: West London Socialist Party

Management proposes putting all wage rates into bands which the employers (TfL and LUL) would refuse to negotiate with unions. These imposed bands would form caps that pay would not be allowed to exceed.

So, if LUL negotiated a 4% pay rise but this took the wages of, for example, station staff, above the top of the ‘customer service’ pay band, then station staff would not receive the consolidated pay rise.

This approach is one that has been trailed in TfL for workers in jobs with banded pay. As a result, many workers have missed several consolidated pay rises in the last nine years. TfL got away with this because union membership density is far lower in TfL than LUL. But now, TfL operational roles, mainly organised by Unite, and LUL operational roles, mainly organised by RMT, are to be put into bands with salary caps. TfL has paid increases as one-off non-consolidated payments in these circumstances, but this is not pensionable and has no compound gain.

As well as suppressing year-on-year pay rises, this strategy is an attack on pensions by the back door. Blocked by RMT strike action from direct attacks on the TfL pension, TfL can cut pensions by holding down consolidated pay, which is used to calculate a retiree’s final salary.

Moreover, the effect of the so-called offer would be that whatever the unions negotiate, managers would then go away and decide who can and cannot have the pay rise. This would be used to split workers and play one group off against another. It is a real threat to the very right to negotiate pay.

RMT has told LUL that the union is in dispute over LUL’s failure to make an acceptable offer that is paid as consolidated salary to all. A mass meeting of RMT members is scheduled. TfL and LUL must abandon their clumsy attack on the unions’ right to negotiate pay, or face a strike ballot.