RMT officials claim another Tube strike is inevitable if both sides cannot reach an agreement
The London Underground has been hit by a series of strikes in recent months over plans to introduce a four-day week for drivers. Four 24-hour walkouts took place in April and June, while other strike dates were called off at the eleventh hour as the negotiations between Transport for London (TfL) and the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) raged on.
The string of walkouts announced by the RMT in March has come to an end, but with the dispute nowhere near its conclusion there’s a chance more could follow. RMT’s London lead, Jared Wood, has said this could be “inevitable” if both sides remain at an impasse.
“We will get everyone together and we’ll have a discussion about what the next steps are,” he told the Metro. “In the meantime, we would hope to have met the company again to see if there’s any shift in their position.
“But at the moment, there is no indication at the last meeting that they were prepared to negotiate the terms. And if that continued to be their position, then I’m afraid further action will be inevitable.”
Tube drivers currently earn about £80k per year and work 36 hours spread across five days. TfL wants to introduce a voluntary, four-day week spread across 35 hours and has set out plans to trial the shift pattern on the Bakerloo line this year.
RMT officials are concerned about the fatigue and risk to passenger safety caused by longer shifts, and are instead pushing for a working pattern of 32 hours per week spread across four days. The union fears the arrangement will only remain voluntary during a transition period, so is seeking allowances on this, while they are concerned all new hires would also accept the four-day week terms
Rival union ASLEF has already accepted TfL’s proposal calling it the “biggest improvement in working conditions for decades”
Tube ridership drops by 43 per cent during strike
The number of passengers who used the London Underground on Thursday, June 4 was 43 per cent lower than the equivalent day last year. Due to the strike only including RMT members, some 60 per cent of drivers turned up so most lines could remain open.
Both the Circle and Waterloo and City lines were completely shut, while there were also some partial closures on the Central, Metropolitan, Piccadilly, Northern, Bakerloo and Hammersmith and City lines.
Some 91 per cent of Jubilee line drivers turned up for work so it could operate a good service throughout the strike. Elizabeth line, London Overground and DLR drivers are not involved in the dispute so these routes also ran as normal.
A TfL spokesperson said: “We are sorry that our customers are yet again faced with disruption and delay following the ongoing strike action by the RMT. We have committed, a number of times and in a number of ways, including in writing before this most recent industrial action, to these proposals being voluntary. Any suggestion otherwise is misleading the public in order to justify strike action over proposals that would give Tube drivers more time off and create a more modern, efficient Tube service.”
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