Major Tube strike comes a step closer after second union votes for walkout

 
Strikes: Commuters barred from entry at Kings Cross during a 2010 strike Picture: Glenn Copus
GLENN COPUS
27 January 2014

The prospect of a major Tube strike next week has increased after a second union today voted in favour of a walkout.

Members of the white-collar Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association agreed to join forces with the RMT for the first of two 48-hour strikes starting next Tuesday.

Unions are locked in a battle with Mayor Boris Johnson over his plans — which break a 2008 election pledge — to shut all Tube ticket offices by next year with the loss of almost 1,000 jobs and a move to full automation of ticket sales. He says this will cut costs by £50 million a year but unions claim passenger safety will be at risk.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "The TSSA ballot result steps up the pressure for a serious and renewed effort to resolve the issues that have forced our two unions into this dispute, which is simply about protecting safety, staffing levels, security and access to services for the growing number of Tube users.

"The Mayor and his officials need to take note of the level of anger that the cuts plans have generated and pull back their damaging and unwanted proposals and allow serious and meaningful talks to resolve this dispute to take place."

Phil Hufton, LU's chief operating officer, said: "Under our proposals all Tube stations will remain staffed and controlled at all times when services are operating, and we'll be introducing a 24-hour service at weekends during 2015. In future, there will be more staff in ticket halls and on platforms to help customers buy the right ticket and keep them safe and secure.

"We're committed to implement changes to station staffing without compulsory redundancies and we've been clear that there'll be a job for everyone at LU who wants to work for us and be flexible. I reaffirm these commitments to the TSSA leadership, whose own Passenger Charter detailing what they want from us is identical to the commitments we have already set out, and I am urging them to abandon this completely unnecessary strike action and to proceed with the consultation that is underway without threatening to disrupt Londoners."

The strikes will be on February 4-6 and 11-13.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in