Two Tube strikes called for March

Dispute is over jobs, pensions and working conditions

Union to stage walkout (James Manning/PA) (PA Wire)

London commuters face two days of chaos in early March due to a planned tube strike.

The RMT union has instructed London Underground members to stop work on Tuesday 1 and Thursday 3 March. The dispute is over jobs, pensions and working conditions.

The union says more than 10,000 members working on the Tube were invited to take part in a ballot. Of those who responded, 94 per cent voted to strike – though this is understood to be less than half the number of union members on the Underground.

The general secretary, Mick Lynch, said: “Our members will be taking strike action next month because a financial crisis at LUL 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.

“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.”

Transport for London (TfL) condemned the strike call. Andy Lord, TfL’s chief operating officer, said: “It is extremely disappointing that the RMT has today announced strike action, as no proposals have been tabled on pensions or terms and conditions, and nobody has or will lose their jobs as a result of the proposals we have set out.

“The devastating impact of the pandemic on TfL finances has made a programme of change urgently necessary and we need the RMT to work with us, rather than disrupting London’s recovery. We’re urging them to do the right thing for London, talk to us and call off this unnecessary action.”

The strike call comes as TfL faces an unprecedented annual shortfall of £1.5bn annually.

The organisation has outlined plans for the “managed decline” of the network, including the risk of “multi-day closures” of Tube lines.