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Unions to go ahead with Tube strike tomorrow

RMT has rejected the latest Night Tube offer from London Underground during talks at Acas yesterday (3 August).

Strikes will therefore begin as planned tomorrow afternoon (5 August) across all grades and all lines.

Trade union representatives were “furious” to find out that the new proposals were just a “re-hash of previous plans” and would continue “along the course of smashing up long-standing agreements and destroying work and life balance in the interests of delivering the mayor’s ill-conceived Night Tube vanity project”.

RMT general secretary, Mick Cash, said in a statement that the latest offer “does nothing to tackle the core issue which revolves around staff being at the beck and call of management to be hauled in during their free time to try and plug the staffing gaps”.

He added: “RMT is also deeply concerned that the talks are being conducted by people who have no background on the Tube and no understanding of how processes and logistics work. That is deeply worrying and a major departure from when the combine was managed by people with a deep-seated knowledge of the railway.

“The Night Tube plan has been botched from the off. The basics haven’t been done and those who will pay for this shambles will not only be our members but the London daily travelling public who cough up a fortune and who will find their safety and the reliability of the service compromised from 12 September onwards.”

Despite RMT being determined to renew their campaign in an effort to inform the public of “the heavy price” that commuters will pay in terms of safety, it is also prepared to continue talking.

However they continue to question the feasibility of night services starting without ‘adequate’ risk assessments or appropriate staffing arrangements. RMT has also warned of the “potential nightmare” of having passengers head to work on Monday morning “as the consequences of running flat-out for nearly three days without a break become only too clear”.

LU said it has put forward a revised pay offer to the unions in settle the disputes over “pay, Night Tube and changes to modernise customer services at stations”. Representatives said there could not be an increase in the original pay offer, but explained they had tried to “re-shape” it to appease workers’ concerns over work-life balance.

Steve Griffiths, chief operations officer at LU, said: “After listening to the unions, we put forward an extremely fair revised offer, which addresses their concerns over work-life balance and rewards our people for the hard work they do in keeping London working and growing.

“Despite this, the new offer has been rejected outright by the union leadership, again without consulting its members. We continue to urge them to put the new offer to their members and not subject Londoners to further unnecessary disruption.”

The company also criticised the demands of the unions to hire more staff “including for ticket offices that customers no longer use”.

They have put forward a new offer including an average 2% salary increase this year and 1% or inflation for 2016 and 2017.

LU has also offered extra payments including £500 for staff on Night Tube lines and stations serving them once the service is introduced on 12 September, as well as £200 for drivers in Night Tube shifts during its introduction.  A further £500 will be offered as staff bonus for the ‘successful’ completion of their modernisation programme by February next year.

It reiterated its commitment to staff by assuring that no one will work more hours than they do today to run the Night Tube, with every worker still being entitled to two days off per week and time off between shifts. An extra 345 jobs will also be introduced to help run stations for the Night Tube.

Annual leave will remain “significantly above the national average” at 43 days for train operators and 52 for members of the station staff.  Drivers on the Night Tube will also be able to opt out of working night shifts next year.

Rail union Aslef also rejected the repackaged offer from LU, saying it lacks “firm commitments” to work-life balance guarantees for train drivers, including the number of weekend rest days they will have under the interim and long-term arrangements for the Night Tube.

As a result they will go ahead with strike action from 9.30pm tomorrow, 5 August. Members of RMT, Unite and TSSA will strike from 6.30pm on the same day.

Finn Brennan, ASLEF district organiser, said: “Vague phrases like ‘will seek to mitigate’ and ‘will explore’ are simply unconvincing. The sensible option would be to postpone the launch date to allow for an agreed way forward to be reached. But once again, management are being completely inflexible and are refusing to negotiate on their offer.”

The RMT had previously walked out of talks on 21 July after concerns over safety at both Upminster and Stonebridge Park depots. Tomorrow’s strike action will also come less than a month after four unions staged a 24-hour strike on 8 July.

Passengers are advised to complete their journeys by 6.30pm tomorrow and TfL has said there will be no service on Thursday, 6 August. Extra bus and river services will run to help commuters but public transport will be much busier than usual.