NIGHT TUBE PUT TO BED

RMT has welcomed moves to abandon this month’s planned launch date of London's Night Tube following strike action The 24-hour weekend service on the Jubilee, Victoria and most of the Piccadilly, Central and Northern lines was due to start on 12 September. Tube workers staged two 24- hour strikes in July and August in a dispute with London Underground over rotas and working conditions on the new service. RMT general secretary Mick Cash welcomed the move which RMT had been calling for ever since all four Tube unions went into dispute over the Night Tube issue. “We warned repeatedly that it would be dangerous and foolish to press ahead with bodged Night Tube plans until the very basics in terms of staffing and safety had been agreed with the unions through the long-established frameworks. “This move by TFL proves that our members were right to strike and were right to warn the public about the consequences of the mad rush to introduce the Mayor’s Night Tube plans without agreement. “The fact that the plans have now been suspended indefinitely to some vague date “in the autumn” is clearly a massive embarrassment to both Boris Johnson and George Osborne but gives us an opportunity to now get the basics that should have been sorted months ago worked out through direct negotiation,” he said. Anti-union Liberal Democrat London Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon complained that the move was a "big climbdown for the mayor" and "strengthened the union's negotiating position". Labour's London Assembly transport spokeswoman Val Shawcross said that the deferral came as "little surprise". "If you try and launch a major NIGHT TUBE PUT TO BED RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2015 :: RMTnews 4 Union welcomes climb down by London Mayor over “dangerous and foolish” plans for London Underground night running