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5. Conference calls on the GFTU to support the People’s Railway campaign and work for
publicly owned and publicly accountable railway.
ACTION
Motion 12 Transport Salaried
Staffs’ Association
London Underground dispute and
cuts to Transport for London’s
operating grant
1. Conference notes that in April 2016, Mayor Boris Johnson implemented the Fit for the
Future scheme in London Underground (LU) that saw ticket offices closed and 800 jobs lost.
The Conservative Mayor’s legacy has, however, been to make LU a dangerous place to work
and travel. Reports from reps led to TSSA surveying station staff members with the finding
that 80% of LU customer facing workers feel less safe at work because of a massive spike in
cases of physical and verbal abuse towards them.
2. As a result, TSSA, along with RMT, have been pursuing industrial action within LU, in a
series of meetings at ACAS, and with the new labour Mayor, Sadiq Khan, the unions have
secured commitments to reinstate 325 new jobs, over and above replacing existing
vacancies.
3. The Conservative legacy remains in London. Transport for London, parent of LU, has seen
its operating grant from government cut completely from 2018-2019 meaning that jobs and
services are put at risk as the company cuts its costs and sell assets. In a city with one of
the worst pollution records in Europe and which suffers chronic congestion, the option of
cutting bus services in a city heavily dependent on public transport is now a real possibility,
something that will increased car usage and more avoidable deaths.
4. Conference is appalled by these issues and calls on the GFTU to support the dispute in LU
and to campaign for the reinstatement of the TfL operating grant.