London Underground strike dates in July

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What did the union leaders say?

Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT, said the action would “close the pipe” and “show just how important these workers are”.

He said: “TfL’s plans to cut 600 jobs and attack our members’ pensions are simply unacceptable.

We are aware that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has cut TfL’s budget. However, he needs to align himself with our union and London Underground employees in fending off the Tory government, exposing their damaging agenda to a key part of London’s transport infrastructure.”

The London Underground’s full-time organizer Aslive said the union had joined the tube strikes announced by the RMT because the changes would make it “impossible” for drivers to “organize their lives outside of work”.

Finn Brennan said: “We only take action when needed. Unfortunately, the past few weeks have shown that London Underground management are determined to try to push through harmful changes – despite opposition from trade unions – if they think they can get away with it.

They have already announced that they intend to start training managers in August on a new attendance procedure, and will implement it from January, ignoring the current agreed procedure.

“This new procedure does not imply any right of representation or appeal at the first stage of the disciplinary process, and the duration of all warnings will double from 26 to 52 weeks.

“All illnesses of more than one week in duration will be considered ‘long term’ which means a manager can send a driver to redeploy without any further meeting. After only six weeks after deployment a driver can be ‘terminated’, they said.

Management also wants to enforce its plans for what they call a “train modernization.” They want unfettered remote booking on and off, driving shifts up to 10 hours long, “flexible coverage” weeks on each roster, and eliminating hard links.

“It would make it impossible for subway drivers to organize their lives outside of work or to have an effective shift system.

“Their goal is to create a fully flexible workforce while replacing all existing agreements – allowing them to cut hundreds of additional jobs and force those of us who remain to work harder for longer. To protect our pensions, working conditions and agreements, our members are ready to act.”

How has TfL responded?

TfL had previously insisted there were no current proposals to change its pension arrangements, although it is exploring a range of proposals to ensure no staff lose their jobs or are required to work extra hours.

But the parties agreed on Friday that there will be no changes to pensions before the next general election.

“This is good news for London and we will continue to work closely with our trade unions to discuss the issues and seek a solution,” said Glenn Barton, TfL’s chief operating officer.

The RMT said 20,000 rail workers across the UK would also strike in July.

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