SOLID NIGHT TUBE ACTION

7 Strike action by RMT members on the Central and Victoria Lines will continue every weekend on the Night Tube through to June in an on-going fight to prevent the ripping up of staffing arrangements that would wreck the work life balance of drivers. The union has also made it clear that the mandate extends to other lines and will consider broadening the action if LU fail to respond. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that if London Underground and the Mayor thought the fight for progressive and family friendly working practices was going away they need to think again. “It's the failure of LU and Sadiq Khan to address the grievances at the heart of the dispute that leaves us no option but to confirm the programme of action goes ahead. “RMT has repeatedly put forward cost neutral proposals that would repair the damage unleashed by deleting 200 driver posts and which would dig LU out of this mess. They have ignored us and that approach will have severe consequences for Londoners through to the summer,” he said. The union has already been locked in a bitter dispute with TfL for months over changes to the night Tube rota after TfL has scrapped the 200 part-time Night Tube drivers’ posts and now requires drivers who work on the ‘day’ Tube to do the shifts instead. In a mass meeting of RMT reps, LU bosses were roundly condemned for an outrageous last-ditch attempt to use the pandemic to try and bully staff into accepting their plans.  In talks negotiators said that they could recommend suspension of the action if LU bosses agreed to step back from their current proposals, halted the demands being placed on drivers and gave the unions' cost-neutral alternative a chance to be put into practice. LU refused point blank yet again to consider this serious offer and it has become clear that the drive from tube bosses is all about cutting costs regardless of the impact on staff and the services they operate. The union has also written to London Mayor Sadiq Khan to express its deep disappointment at ‘incorrect statements’ he made on Twitter that were a total misrepresentation of the facts around the dispute. The union has warned that deliberately distorting the truth has had an incendiary effect when the Mayor should be putting pressure on tube bosses to get back round the table with RMT for serious talks. SOLID NIGHT TUBE ACTION Union accuses London Underground of outrageous attempts to use pandemic to bully staff