The Socialist 15 September 2010

Join the fight against cuts

Join the fight against cuts

Decisive action can defeat this government

TUC backs youth jobs demo

TUC told to name the day

TUC: Build for action against cuts

Stop the 'slippery slope' to two-tier education

How will the Browne Review into university funding affect you?

Student strikes can win results

Women and the struggle against oppression

Royal Mail: Con-Demned to history?

Privatisation's giant wrecking ball

Fight the jobs cuts massacre

Middlesborough local union-led public services alliance set up

Fast news

General strike in France

Osborne targets the needy

Labour councillors challenged in Hastings

Shropshire: showing socialist alternative gets results

London Underground: Action biting against job cuts

UCU executive pulls out of strike ballot

Fight for jobs at GSK

Workplace news in brief

Mood of defiance in Huddersfield

Hull park rangers protest

How do we vote to stop the cuts?

Nottinghamshire: Campaign saves vital service

Lobbies warn councils of workers' action

Socialism 2010: How can we save the environment?

All-India general strike: Eyewitness report from Chennai

Fighting oppression in Kazakhstan

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London Underground: Action biting against job cuts

Seven Sisters London Underground RMT and TSSA members strike, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)

The overtime ban on London Underground is beginning to bite. In the last few days some stations have closed, including Charing Cross which had to be closed for 20 minutes over the weekend.

Reg Johnstone

RMT and TSSA's strike on 6-7 September was rock solid on every line. Even on the Northern Line only a special Sunday service ran. But the management gave the impression that a full service was running.

Well over 100 stations were closed and on a number of lines management were running trains through a series of unstaffed stations, a health and safety risk.

RMT and TSSA members at Finsbury Park London Underground on strike, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)

At Belsize Park station on the Northern Line, they told people that the station was open. But when passengers got off the train they were horrified to find they had to go up 219 steps. This included many patients visiting the nearby hospital.

Both unions being out on strike was historic and the mood amongst the workforce is very strong. There is also a growing realisation that there has to be a wider struggle for jobs, involving other trade unions and the community. This is not a strike for more money, it is a strike for keeping the number of staff needed to run a safe service for staff and passengers.

Even the overtime ban shows that they can't run the service on the numbers working now, let alone with the 800 jobs they want to cut.

The next tube strike is due to begin on 3 October.

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