CPA - The Guardian

Britain’s rail union RMT leader Bob Crow has expressed “disbelief” at plans to fly London Underground managers to New York to advise on improving the city’s subway system, warning it could affect a pay dispute. New York’s Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) will be charged up to US$200 an hour for each member of staff from Transport for London.

However, Mr Crow said he would make sure his members were aware of the development as they prepare to vote in a ballot for industrial action in a row over pay.

“RMT will take no lectures from Tube and TfL bosses on pay restraint when a deal is being lined up that will net those same senior managers the equivalent of a thousand pounds a day plus expenses for jumping on a plane to New York,” he stormed.

“We will make sure our members know that the same senior TfL managers who have been attacking our campaign for a decent pay increase are queuing up to jet over to New York on US$200 an hour.

“These are also the same managers who presided over the Metronet fiasco and the financial chaos at TfL which has led to the scrapping of upgrades and renewal programs and axing of key services.”

The RMT and Unite unions have both rejected a “final offer” of a 1.5 percent pay rise this year and 0.5 percent next year. Unite is also preparing to ballot for action.

Mr Crow added that the RMT would contact the New York transport unions “to make them aware of what they are getting for their money,” adding: “If these people are as good as they are being cracked up to be then they should remain in London sorting out our problems, not swanning across to New York.”

A TfL spokesman said the plan was only at an “initial stage.”

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