LONDON Underground services were mostly back to normal on Wednesday, after the strike on Tuesday in the dispute with the RMT and TSSA over the loss of 800 jobs. The unions are celebrating a ‘rock solid’ response, while Transport for London says most lines kept going, at least in part.
The argument concerns plans to shed the jobs and reduce the opening hours of many suburban ticket offices. TfL says these often sell only a few tickets each hour, because most passengers now use Oyster smartcards.
Not all the staff are to lose their jobs: some are to be moved to frontline roles on station concourses and platforms.
But the rail unions are arguing that the TfL plans will prejudice safety, which TfL has denied. The unions are also alleging that there were further breaches of safety rules during the strike, and are filing details of their concerns with the Office of Rail Regulation.
The strike, which began on Monday night at 21.00, meant that fewer than half the scheduled traihs could be run, and some sections of line remained closed all day, along with a significant number of stations on those routes which did maintain a service.
But TfL is claiming that the strike did not have the effect predicted by the unions.
London Underground managing director Mike Brown said: “The paralysis of London predicted by the leadership of the TSSA union failed to materialise. The RMT and TSSA leaderships have chosen to disrupt Londoners for no good reason.
“The safety argument they deployed - which has never been raised in any formal forum - is completely without foundation. It is simple scaremongering designed to mask their wish to strike.
“Londoners will doubtless find it incredible that the two union leaderships have pursued this action when they have been given cast-iron assurances that the staffing changes we are making come with no compulsory redundancies, that every station that currently has a ticket office will retain one, and that every station will remain staffed at all times.”
But the general secretary of the RMT, Bob Crowe, maintained that safety was being put at risk.
He said: “The message to the Mayor and his transport officials is clear - stop playing fast and loose with safety, stop the drive towards unstaffed stations, drop the threat of these lethal cuts and start meaningful talks on a safe and secure future for the London tube system.
“Our members have shown in their rock solid support for this action that they will not sit idly by while staffing levels are hacked to the bone and the management open the door to a major disaster.
“We are also compiling evidence of breaches of post Kings Cross safety regulations that are being given the green light by management this morning. Those regulations are there for a purpose, breaking them is a lethal gamble with passenger safety to maintain a PR front and that's a scandal.”
Transport for London has renewed its call for talks to restart, but at the moment further walkouts are planned for 3 October and 2 and 28 November.
Ex-Metronet maintenance staff are also striking at the same time, while a separate dispute over pay has triggered walkouts at three Alstom-run depots on the Jubilee and Northern Lines.
Reader Comments:
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I personally reject Bob Crowe's self-appointed role of safety authority; if either he or the membership of the RMT is truly concerned with the safety of the travelling public, his union should take the matter to the appropriate authorities.
Lorentz, London