Digging Underground Towards London 2012
London 2012 has negotiators flexing their muscles all over the capital as we approach the final run- up to the Games.
In The Times of Friday 23 March, I read that the head of the RMT union, Bob Crow, has broken off talks with the London Underground management team at the UK conciliation service ACAS. The RMT is the union that represents tube workers’ interests. The union is threatening strike action as a result of the latest proposals from the management team.
His complaint is that the current offer, which gives tube drivers a one-off payment of £1000 and other tube workers £850 if they agree to work during the three week period of the Games comes with other strings attached. Crow’s complaint is that these new conditions mean that staff will have to be prepared “to work any time, any place, anywhere at the drop of a hat”.
Ominously, he continues, “We don’t know if there has been political interference from behind the scenes but attempting to impose a whole raft of new conditions on a Tube Olympics agreement at this stage, smacks of an attempt from somewhere to sabotage these talks.” Another union official added later that strike action was definitely an option, though he was not specific as to when or where – presumably not during the Olympics, which would be an unpopular move amongst their members.
Meanwhile Howard Collins, London Underground’s chief operating officer said, “the RMT’s leadership demanded payments to all grades of staff regardless of whether they will be asked to work flexibly during the Games and rejected temporary changes to working arrangements which would enable us to achieve a flexible workforce.”
Some observations from a negotiating standpoint.