"The letter we have received from Metronet and the administrator falls way short of the guarantees our members need and deserve," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today

"What we sought was firm, unequivocal guarantees, but frankly our members are being asked to stake their jobs and their pensions on a pig in a poke.

"The only assurances we have received about jobs and transfers cover only the period of administration, and that is simply not good enough.

"It is strange that the administrator can determine all sorts of things about the future of the PPP contracts, apparently including who the next fat-cat privateer might be, but is not in a position to give on-going guarantees on the jobs of the people who actually do the work.

"On pensions we have received no guarantee from the employer at all.

"When the government forced through the disastrous part-privatisation of the Tube, the deputy prime minister told the world that the pensions of our members would be safe.

"What we need from the administrator and Metronet is an unequivocal confirmation that Prescott's statement will be adhered to by this employer or by any other employer under the PPP. Anything less is unacceptable.

"Of course we welcome Ken Livingstone's desire to bring Tube maintenance back in-house, but the fact remains that the guarantees we need can only come from the employer.

"When the jobs and pensions of our members are at stake - not to mention the Tube upgrades that the capital cannot do without - vague assurances are not enough, and the strike by our members will go ahead at 6pm on Monday," Bob Crow said.

See also:

London Mayor Urges Unions to Halt Strike Plan at Tube

Bloomberg: Aug. 31
By Brian Lysaght

Mayor Ken Livingstone urged three labor unions to cancel plans to hold strikes against a London Underground contractor that may shut down part of the railway.

About 3,000 workers at Metronet Rail plan two 72-hour strikes, starting at 6 p.m. on Sept. 3 and Sept. 10, to protest possible job losses and pension cuts after the company ran out of cash and collapsed last month.

The unions have said the strikes will have a "massive'' impact on the London Underground, which carries 3 million passengers a day. Livingstone, who met with officials from the rail unions yesterday, said he offered assurances that jobs and pensions would be maintained.

"As each of the issues which the trade unions have raised have been fully addressed, I believe the threatened strikes, next week and the week after, are not justified and should be called off,'' the mayor said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

The unions are awaiting confirmation in writing from the Metronet administrator of the mayor's assurances, and if they get those, probably will call off the strikes, said a spokesman for the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association, which attended the meeting with Livingstone along with the Rail, Maritime & Transport and Unite unions.

The RMT "welcomed'' the mayor's comments, though the strike remains on for now, a spokesman said in an interview.

Nine Lines

Metronet workers maintain trains, tracks and signaling systems on nine of the 12 London Underground lines: the District, Circle, Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City, East London, Bakerloo, Central, Victoria, and Waterloo & City lines.

The RMT said yesterday that drivers represented by the union would refuse to work during the Metronet strike if they were concerned about the condition of tracks or trains.

The company was put under the control of administrators on July 18. Transport for London, the city agency that operates London Underground, said last week it plans to make an offer to buy Metronet to get the company out of administration.

The company was a joint venture owned by WS Atkins Plc, Balfour Beatty Plc, Bombardier Inc., Thames Water and Electricite de France SA.

Ernst & Young LLC, Metronet's court-appointed administrator, had no immediate comment, a spokeswoman said.

See also:

Maintenance strike set to disrupt Tube

Financial Times: September 1 2007
By Andrew Taylor in London

London Underground faces the threat of serious disruption during the first half of next week after unions declined to call off a planned strike by maintenance workers.

Workers employed by Metronet, the failed contractor responsible for maintaining more than two-thirds of the network, are due to stop work for 72 hours from 6pm on Monday.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union (RMT), representing 2,300 Metronet employees, said that the strike would go ahead. It claimed to have failed to win “unequivocal guarantees” from Metronet and its administrator that there would be no job losses, forced transfers and that pensions would be protected.

Ken Livingstone, London’s mayor, however, insisted that the union had been given the assurances that it required that “no Metronet staff should suffer any loss of pension, employment or be transferred”.

He said: “With clear assurances from the administrator and Metronet that there will be no job cuts, transfers or losses in pensions as a result of the collapse of Metronet, and my clear commitments for the future security of all Metronet staff, it would be unreasonable to proceed with strikes which will disrupt the lives of millions of Londoners and lose Metronet employees considerable sums in pay.”

Metronet, which was owned by five companies – WS Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Bombardier Transportation, EDF Energy and Thames Water – went into administration in July after it ran out of cash only four years into a £30bn programme to upgrade the Underground. It had sought £551m emergency funding but was granted only £121m by an independent arbiter.

The failed contractor is temporarily being run by its administrator, Alan Bloom of Ernst & Young. Mr Bloom the former Railtrack administrator, has been given public funding by Transport for London (TfL) to keep the network running. TfL has warned that services could be seriously disrupted if essential maintenance work is halted.

Bob Crow, RMT general secretary, said on Friday: “When the government forced through the disastrous part-privatisation of the Tube, the deputy prime minister told the world that the pensions of our members would be safe.

“What we need from the administrator and Metronet is an unequivocal confirmation that Prescott’s statement will be adhered to by this employer or by any other employer under the PPP. Anything less is unacceptable.”

The collapse of Metronet was embarrassing for Gordon Brown who, as chancellor, backed the establishment of the public private partnership against stiff opposition from TfL and Mr Livingstone.

TfL last week expressed interest in restoring the failed contracts to public control for an initial period of up to two years. It did not rule out making the move permanent if the transfer proved successful.

The administrator has appointed Rothschild, the investment bank, to value the failed infrastructure company by the end of September after which it will consider whether to invite formal bids.