Tube boss Mike Brown: Union talks after strike is called off won’t stop closure of ticket offices

 
LU managing director Mike Brown
12 February 2014

Tube boss Mike Brown today insisted he was determined to go ahead with the closure of ticket offices after unions called off their strike.

Mr Brown said a small number of ticket offices may escape closure but there was little room for manoeuvre over 950 job losses.

He also revealed that London Underground and the unions had been close to a deal to avoid last week’s 48-hour walkout, but it was scuppered by a union “faction”.

He told the Standard: “This is a change programme where unfortunately jobs have to go, but inevitably and without fear of failure change will happen... Having back-office and administrative tasks such as banking money on a station that sells a few tickets an hour is a nonsense.

“Fares got held down to [inflation] this year and the only way you ever get to do that is to efficiently manage your operations.” The RMT and TSSA unions called off this week’s strike after LU agreed a two-month extension to consultation on cuts and froze the processing of voluntary redundancies.

Mr Brown said “the same form of words” were rejected just before last week’s strike, claiming: “I thought I nearly had a deal and it was scuppered when the trade union leadership had a row among themselves.”

On Tube ticket office closures, he said: “We will get the unions’ views station by station. We are going to have visitor information centres at places such as Victoria and King’s Cross and it is possible some of the bigger stations [London Bridge and Waterloo] we might review... but this is the exception to the rule. The reality is booking offices are from the Victorian age.”

The RMT’s general secretary, Bob Crow said: “We have now received proposals that halt the implementation of the job cuts, which gives us the opportunity to discuss all of the issues away from the pressure cooker.”

In Pictures: Tube strike (February 2014)

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