Tube strike misery looms

DRIVERS’ WALKOUT THREATENS TO STALL THE UNDERGROUND

LONDON Underground services are set to suffer severe disruption tomorrow (Thursday) when tube drivers stage a 24-hour walkout.

Members of the train drivers union ASLEF are due to participate in a day of industrial action following a dispute with London Undergroud (LU) about working hours.

The strike threatens to bring the tube to a near-standstill and commuters will not be the only ones affected if it goes ahead.

Thousands of football fans heading to Wembley for England’s World Cup qualifier against Slovenia will find their journeys disrupted too.

Passengers are advised to plan ahead and use alternative routes.

London Overground and DLR trains will be unaffected as they are operated separately.

All tube lines will be operating a severely reduced service.

The strike will officially start at 12.01am on Thursday but not take effect until the early morning when the tube service normally begins.

Mainline rail services will operate as normal but are expected to be busier than usual.

Talks between ASLEF and transport chiefs are on-going – today (Wednesday) is the latest point at which the strike could be called off.

The drivers strike comes after LU’s alleged failure to introduce the new shift patterns it promised drivers in 2015.

Finn Brennan, ASLEF’s organiser on London Underground, said: “ASLEF members have voted by an 88% margin to take strike action in our dispute over the failure of LU to deliver on the commitments they made to improve work life balance as part of the 2015 pay settlement.

“As part of the settlement of the dispute over the introduction of Night Tube, LU agreed to introduce a mechanism to allow drivers to reduce the number of shifts they work, on a pro-rata basis, and “new ways of working” to reduce the percentage of weekend shifts worked by July this year.

“They have repeatedly refused to make any detailed proposals to do so.

“For more than 18 months management have prevaricated, stalled and delayed.

“Deadlines have repeatedly been missed and promises broken while our detailed proposals to resolve these issues have been ignored.

“Our members’ patience has finally been exhausted and our executive committee has announced strike action.

“As always, we are ready to meet at any time to try to find a solution, but it is long past time that LU management started to act to resolve this long running dispute.”

Nigel Holness, LU’s director of network operations, said: “We are committed to ensuring that our employees are able to maintain a good balance between their work and personal lives, and we have been working closely with the unions to explore new ways to achieve this.

“I encourage Aslef to continue working with us constructively rather than moving towards unnecessary strike action.”