Six days of strike action across London Underground
Six days of strike action by three different unions are planned across the London Underground network next week.
As part of a long-running row over pensions, working conditions and job cuts, the RMT union is planning six days of industrial action on the London Underground.
ASLEF and Unite union members will also be going on strike.
The tube strike will take place from Sunday to July 28, but there will be no strikes on Monday, July 24.
ASLEF train drivers will walk out on July 26 and 28. Workers in engineering, maintenance and management roles will also be striking on July 26 and July 28.
Unite members employed by London Underground will take 24-hour strikes on Wednesday and Friday.
Finn Brennan, ASLEF’s full-time organiser on London Underground said: “‘We take action only when needed.
“London Underground management has already announced that they intend to start training managers in August on a new attendance procedure, and will implement it from January, ignoring the current agreed procedure.
“This new procedure would mean no right to representation or appeal at stage one of the disciplinary process and the length of all warnings would be doubled from 26 to 52 weeks.
“All sickness longer than one week would be regarded as “long term” meaning that a manager can send a driver to redeployment without any further meeting.
“After just six weeks in deployment, a driver can be, as they put it, “terminated”.
“To protect our pensions, working conditions, and agreements, our members are ready to act.”
National rail strikes on Thursday, Saturday and July 29 may also affect some District line, London Overground, Elizabeth line and Tram services.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “This week of action will shut down the London Underground and show just how important the work of our members is.
“Plans by TfL to cut 600 jobs and attack our member’s pensions are simply unacceptable.
“We are aware that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has had the TfL budget cut.
“However, he needs to align himself with our union and his London Underground staff in pushing back against the Tory government, exposing their damaging agenda to a key part of London transport infrastructure.”
Glynn Barton, TfL’s chief operating officer, said: “We are continuing to talk with trade unions to discuss the issues and seek a resolution.
“There are no current proposals to change pension arrangements.
“Although we are discussing with union colleagues a range of proposals to change how London Underground operates, no employee will lose their job or be asked to work additional hours.
“We urge the trade unions to call off this action, but if it goes ahead customers should check before they travel as there will be significant disruption on the Tube across the week.”
The Department for Transport has been approached for comment.
Pictured top: London Underground (Picture: TfL)
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