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Travel centre staff slam top bosses

'Hypocrite' transport chiefs plan wage freeze and pensions cut

London transport workers branded bosses paid hundreds of thousands of pounds "hypocrites" yesterday for planning a pay freeze and pensions cut.

Transport for London (TfL) boss Sir Peter Hendy is paid £650,000 a year, and more than 50 directors and senior managers receive £100,000.

But the gilded bosses want to freeze the wages of travel centre staff at main line stations and cut their pensions.

The 1,000 TSSA members will vote on strike action next Monday.

General secretary Manuel Cortes branded the bosses "joint hypocrites of the year."

He said that London Mayor Boris Johnson "and his fellow Tories keep telling us that we are all in this together.

"But there seems to be one rule for the mayor and all the plutocrats that back his half-baked ideas and another rule for our members.

"Sir Peter and his cronies get their mouths stuffed with gold while our members who work at the sharp end just get the gruel.

"It took a 48-hour strike last month to halt the plans to close every Tube ticket office and we are ready to fight again to preserve our members' pay and pensions in the travel centres and at TfL headquarters."

He said the bosses did not learn from history - even history as recent as the workers' successful strike seven weeks ago.

He said bosses also want to cut pensions which could cost supervisory and managerial staff who work at travel centres £200,000 each.

The stations include Waterloo, Kings Cross, Euston and Paddington.

The strike ballot closes on April 16.

"Just 19 months ago, the mayor praised these very staff for their outstanding work during the Olympics," said Mr Cortes. "Now he wants to kick them in the teeth."

Mr Cortes called on Mr Johnson to withdraw the cuts and negotiate with the union - instead of planning a return to the House of Commons as an MP after next year's general election.

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