Londoners Prepare for Major Strike Affecting Entire Tube Network

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• Londoners Prepare for Major Strike Affecting Entire Tube Network

24 February 2022 | Updated 01 March 2022

Planned strike action will cause severe disruption across the London Underground network all day on Tuesday 1 March and Thursday 3 March.

Services on Wednesday 2 March and Friday 4 March are also likely to be affected, particularly in the morning peak. 

Customers in central London are advised to walk, cycle or use a rental e-scooter for all or part of their journeys where possible.

Today is about sending a message that we won't stand by and allow London Underground, the mayor or the government attack our jobs, pensions or agreements.#solidarity pic.twitter.com/zD4AiTDYNj

— ⓇⓂⓉ London Calling ✊ 𝙟𝙤𝙞𝙣 𝙍𝙈𝙏 ✊ (@RMTLondon) March 1, 2022

Pensions, Conditions and Safety

The dispute between Transport for London (TfL) and The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) is centred on pensions, jobs, conditions and safety.

TfL has been engaging with its trade unions and staff to seek their views on how it can make London Underground more efficient and financially sustainable. They say that it’s necessary to “bring staffing levels in line with customer need while protecting as many jobs as possible.” TfL are proposing that this be achieved by "not recruiting into certain currently unfilled posts, or those that become vacant as people leave the organisation.”

“These are the very same transport staff praised as heroes for carrying London through COVID for nearly two years, often at serious personal risk, who now have no option but to strike to defend their livelihoods."

–Mick Lynch

General Secretary, RMT

TfL states that the Underground will remain “well-staffed" with more than 4,500 station staff available across the network.

RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said: “Our members will be taking strike action next week because a financial crisis at LUL (London Underground) has been deliberately engineered by the government to drive a cuts’ agenda which would savage jobs, services, safety and threaten their working conditions and‎ pensions. The sheer scale of that threat was confirmed in talks yesterday [23 Feb 2022].

“These are the very same transport staff praised as heroes for carrying London through COVID for nearly two years, often at serious personal risk, who now have no option but to strike to defend their livelihoods.

“The politicians need to wake up to the fact that transport staff will not pay the price for this cynically engineered crisis. In addition to the strike action RMT is coordinating a campaign of resistance with colleagues from other unions impacted by this threat.
“The union remains available for talks aimed at resolving the dispute.”

"We haven’t proposed any changes to pensions or terms and conditions, and nobody has or will lose their jobs because of the proposals we have set out. I hope the RMT will get around the table with us, continue talks and call off this disruptive action, which will cause huge frustration for our customers and further financial damage to TfL and London’s economy when we should be working together to rebuild following the pandemic."

–Andy Lord

CEO, TfL

Andy Lord, TfL’s Chief Operating Officer, said: “It is extremely disappointing that the RMT is planning to go ahead with this action. We haven’t proposed any changes to pensions or terms and conditions, and nobody has or will lose their jobs because of the proposals we have set out. I hope the RMT will get around the table with us, continue talks and call off this disruptive action, which will cause huge frustration for our customers and further financial damage to TfL and London’s economy when we should be working together to rebuild following the pandemic."

Fares on Transport for London services will rise by 4.8 per cent from 1 March 2022. 

Picture: a photograph of some London Underground signage. Image Credit: TfL

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 24 February 2022

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