Widespread disruption is anticipated to be faced by the capital as Tube drivers and station staff go on strike on Wednesday in London.
Although trains will continue to run normally from the Elizabeth line to London Overground, Transport for London has cautioned that services like buses are anticipated to be much busier and face delays and disruptions.
In a disagreement over pensions and upcoming personnel changes for the subterranean network, members of Aslef and the Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers Union (RMT) will go on a 24-hour strike on budget day.
Although TfL agreed to conduct a review as part of the emergency funding deal with the central government to lessen the financial losses from the epidemic, it has said that no changes to pensions are planned. Later this week, proposals should be submitted.
For the first time since 2015, the ALEF drivers’ union has gone on strike.
The ALEF drivers’ strike is the union’s first nationwide underground strike since 2015.
The ASLEF’s organizer on the underground, Finn Brennan, stated: “This is not a strike about pay or for more time off. It is about making sure that change and ‘modernisation’ comes about by agreement.”
“Central government has used the effects of the pandemic to insist that TfL targets staff pensions and working conditions. The government wants London Underground staff to fill the hole it has made in TfL’s budget by accepting huge cuts to their pension benefits and changes to working conditions that would destroy [their] work-life balance and slash their income in retirement.”
Roughly 10,000 RMT members will be involved in the strike. It is the seventh time since March 2022 that they have organized the strike in London.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, was requested by the RMT general secretary, Mick Lynch, to prevent job cutbacks that would result in 600 fewer station employees and to suspend the pension review.
Lynch stated in a letter to Khan on Tuesday: “These disputes are the consequence of a failed funding model in London’s transport system. TfL’s need for emergency funding from the government has led to dependence on striking deals with a spiteful administration with an agenda to drive down the living standards of transport workers.”
He advocated to the mayor that he “change course and join with RMT in campaigning for the funding that TfL needs to maintain the jobs, pensions, and conditions of its workforce and the services it provides to the traveling public.”
Khan replied that the strikes were “bad news for many of the capital’s businesses, who are struggling with the inflation and cost-of-doing business crisis.”
“It is no secret that the industrial action on London Underground is driven by the conditions the government attached to the funding deal … TfL have done everything within their powers to avoid strikes going ahead on the tube and will keep working with their unions to avoid further action.”
TfL’s chief operating officer, Glynn Barton, conveyed: “I apologise to our customers for any disruption caused by Wednesday’s industrial action. I urge the trade unions to call off this action and continue to engage with us to avoid disruption to our customers.”
Tfl cautioned that the strike would continue the next morning. The majority of the country’s major rail companies will be impacted by the RMT members’ strike on Thursday, which will cause significant delays for certain extra train services into London, most notably the Elizabeth Line’s outer reaches.
- Published By Team Timeswire