London Underground workers vote in favour of 72 hour walkout

London Underground's two biggest unions have announced joint strike dates for more than 7,500 of their station staff and train operator members.

RMT and TSSA members, who are in dispute with the company over a raft of safety and staffing issues, will walk out from 6.30pm on Sunday, April 6 until 6.30pm on Wednesday, April 9 after voting by five to one and four to one respectively for action.

The unions have told LUL that its plans for ticket-office closures, de-staffing, lone working, introduction of 'mobile supervisors', use of agency and security staff and other disputed policies amount to an unacceptable attack on safety standards and the casualisation of safety-critical work (details in notes below).

"Each of these issues is serious in its own right, but together they amount to a fundamental and unacceptable attack on staffing across the network, putting our members' and passengers' safety at risk," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"Tube workers will not stand idly by while the security of the network is compromised by managers who clearly believe that staff and passenger safety can be looked after on the cheap."

Gerry Doherty, general secretary of TSSA, said,"This is a dispute about the safety of our Tube system. The last people we want to hit are the travelling public but this seems to be the only way we can make London Underground listen.

"We have been trying to make them understand for months that we will not allow safety standards to be lowered by the use of agency staff. Even at this late stage, we want a negotiated settlement and remain ready to talk next week to achieve one."

March 28, 2008