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London Underground staff to strike in September
Thousands of London tube workers will strike this September in a dispute over plans to axe 800 jobs and close ticket-offices.
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Thousands of London Underground workers will strike this September in a dispute over plans to axe 800 jobs and close a number of ticket-offices.
Around 10,000 members of London Underground’s two biggest unions, RMT and TSSA, will begin the first in a series of 24 hour strikes on Monday 6 September. Maintenance and engineering staff are scheduled to start at 17:00, while other staff including drivers and signalling staff will start from 21:00.
More strikes are planned for Sunday 3 October, Tuesday 2 November and Sunday 28 November.
Meanwhile, an indefinite overtime ban for all London Underground members of both unions will come into effect at a minute after midnight on 6 September.
Bob Crow, RMT general secretary, said the cuts are unacceptable and undermine safety and service for the travelling public.
‘The mayor was elected on a promise of maintaining safe staffing levels and he is doing the opposite, planning to leave stations and platforms dangerously understaffed and threatening to turn the network into a muggers’ paradise’, he said.
Gerry Doherty, TSSA general secretary, said: ‘Boris Johnson may be prepared to go into the Olympic Games with a second-class Tube service when the eyes of the world will be on the capital: we are not’.
Howard Collings, chief operating officer of London Underground (LU), however has said changes need to be made as some ticket offices sell less than 10 tickets an hour.
‘We need to change, but we will do so without compromising safety, without compulsory redundancies, and in a way that means all stations will continue to be staffed at all times and all stations with a ticket office will continue to have one,’ he said.
LU added that should the strike action take place, it will seek to operate as many Tube services as possible.
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6 comments so far. Why not have your say?
andrew sutherland
Aug 25, 2010 at 16:45
Hmm...anything Crow spouts about pay is a bit of a joke after his last payrise.
He's certainly got the cream there...maybe he should donate his bloated wage to Pakistan.
report thisIan
Aug 25, 2010 at 17:15
Compared to the vastly superior underground railway systems in Germany the London Underground is hugely over staffed with "station attendants" who do little more than stand around all day or shout pointless instructions like "move down inside the cars" which everyone has heard before and does anyway. If they go on strike I suggest that they be sacked and that the system runs without them. Germany runs first class underground railways without all these staff and London can do the same.
report thisfatcat
Aug 25, 2010 at 17:18
Let them strike- to get out of this mess we need to take on all these bloody commies and bring all the unions in to 2010. It will be worth the pain but get ready for the October riots!
report thisJohn F
Aug 25, 2010 at 17:27
I completely agree with Andrew, Ian and Fatcat. I reckon the RMT spend their days dreaming up the next strike scam. Anything not to put in a decent days work and inconvenence the travelling public.
report thisPanda
Aug 25, 2010 at 17:29
As it seems that the London Underground staff is 'hugely overstaffed' and Mr Crow has declared his intentions now, then the situatiion should be sorted out well within the next 702 days before the Olympic Games start!
report thisConstance Blackwell
Aug 25, 2010 at 20:30
the fact is the London Overground service until recently has been totally understaffed - I moved from Hackney Central because it was so unsafe - neither people to sell the tickets or people to take them - people came in and off not paying - It is necessary to have eyes - human ones in public places -
To say it can become a muggers paradise is correct -
Here in Kilburn they have finally fixed up the station - and they have installed ticket machines - but many times they do not work. If they are counting there - well not many ticket sold on a broken ticket machine -
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