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LONDON FACES TRAVEL chaos tomorrow when workers on the Underground railway go on strike for 48 hours to protest the closure of ticket offices with the loss of hundreds of jobs.
Talks between the government and two unions behind the strike on the world’s oldest subway system broke down today without agreement.
It is the latest in a series of strikes on the “Tube” since Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative-led coalition took office promising austerity measures to curb a record deficit.
London Mayor Boris Johnson, widely considered a party leadership rival to Cameron, has announced plans to close many of the Underground’s ticket offices and cut 953 jobs.
Two unions — the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) and the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) — called the strike in protest.
“We are prepared to suspend the industrial action if the mayor is prepared to suspend the job losses,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow told a news conference.
Underground staff will now go on strike from 2100 GMT on Tuesday for 48 hours and again at the same time the following week, union leaders said.
Most Underground lines will run heavily restricted services, with Londoners having to take to buses, bikes and even go on foot to beat the strike.
After today’s talks broke down, TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes offered to meet mayor Johnson “anytime, anywhere” in the next 24 hours to try and reach a deal.
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Strike… What’s that says the Irish man! You mean other countries don’t just bend over like us!
The London underground unions are pretty strike happy to be honest. They know they’ve got London by the short and curlies, so they really take the p!ss sometimes. This is my favrourite one for about ten years ago.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3265743.stm
Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of Londoners more than the three little words ‘Rail replacement service’
Bike it is so :-/. Hope it’s dry.
Bob Crow is a self serving parasite. … He can’t understand the tube is run for the travelling public and not over payed over indulged workers. …I know a bit about it as I used to work on this gravy train
Bob Crow is paid over £145,000 per annum, had enjoyed an salary increase of 26 per cent since 2009, and has just returned from an expensive beach holiday in Brazil with his partner who is also an RMT official. Yet he lives in a council house in a city where affordable and social housing is in great demand from people on low incomes. This strike is about Crow trying to retain the membership numbers and subscription income of the RMT union that keeps Bob Crow in the style to which he has become accustomed.
Well said David
Remember this from a while back. Always make chuckle. (warning; very course language)
This story is inaccurate. London Underground is closing ticket offices because people now buy their tickets from vending machines or use Oyster cards which can be bought at a wide variety of outlets. The ticket office staff will be deployed out into the stations or onto the platforms to assist the public directly. There will be no compulsory redundancies so no jobs will be lost. On the contrary more jobs will be created by the introduction of the 24 hour a day tube service. The leader of the RMT, Bob Crow, has always taken every opportunity to call strikes. Less than 35 per cent of the members of his union voted for the strike. Many working people, particularly the hourly paid, will lose money due to this strike.
Boris should do a Maggie and send in the boys to beat seven shades out of them, like she did to the Miners unions. Then Cameron can turn the water cannon on them.
That will put the revolting proles back in their place, eh!
Oh dear, glad I left London yesterday. Waiting for a bus takes effort lol
London Underground will be running as many services as possible using members of other unions. For example they plan to have one train running every eight minutes on the District Line between Upminster and Wimbledon. The London Overground, mainline and commuter trains, the Stansted, Heathrow and Gatwick Expresses, the Docklands Light Railway and London’s much improved buses should run as usual.
Did Boris tell you to google “Underground Strike” and like a good Toryboy go and badmouth the workers standing up for themselves?
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