Tube staff vote for 48hr strike
Updated on 28 May 2009
Members of the RMT transport union have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action on London Underground and Transport for London services.
The union is in dispute with LU and TfL over jobs, pay and working conditions.
Union members voted overwhelmingly for strike action in two disputes that could bring underground services to a halt.
The RMT said its members would strike on London Underground for 48 hours from 7pm on Tuesday June 9.
The union has accused LU and TfL of deliberately provoking the dispute. It said that one of the Tube bosses was threatening to tear up an agreement aimed at safeguarding jobs, and had refused to rule out compulsory redundancies. Up to 3,000 jobs are at risk.
The RMT maintains that LU has also refused to budge from an "unacceptable" five-year pay offer that, it says, gives no real-terms increase for four years, and which could even see pay cut.
The union says that TfL is also threatening compulsory redundancies as part of a £2.4 billion cuts package.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "This is a magnificent result which underlines the anger that has been provoked by management in their confrontational approach on pay and job security.
"LU seems to think that observing agreements is optional, and its plan to cut jobs is simply unacceptable.
"We said from the start that our members, whether in LU or TfL, would not be made to pay for the failure and greed of bankers and privateers, and that any attempt to impose compulsory redundancies would be met with a ballot for industrial action."
Mr Crow added: "If LU and TfL want to avoid confrontation they should withdraw their plans to slash jobs and guarantee there will be no forced redundancies, start talking seriously about pay and call off the bully managers."
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