18.09.17
Aslef drivers to stage 24-hour Tube strike in October
Tube drivers who are members of Aslef will stage a 24-hour walkout during October as part of a dispute with London Underground over working conditions.
From the 53.1% turnout, 88.4% of members voted for a strike whilst 93.5% said they were in favour of industrial action short of a strike.
The strike will take place on Thursday 5 October, and is in protest of LU “failing to improve work life balance” for drivers working on Night Tube.
Aslef, along with fellow union RMT, called strikes on Night Tube earlier this year over a similar issue – although this was swiftly called off after TfL agreed to their terms.
But if it goes ahead, this strike is likely to cause havoc for commuters in London, who are already having to deal with industrial action on Southern from both Aslef and the RMT, over a separate issue.
“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,” said Finn Brennan, Aslef’s organiser on LU.
“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.”
Brennan added that for more than 18 months management have “prevaricated, stalled and delayed”, leading to deadlines being missed and promises broken while Aslef’s detailed proposals to resolve the issues were 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,” he concluded.
Nigel Holness, LU’s director of network operations, stated that the organisation is 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,” he said.
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