Talks at Acas broken down - Sunday's London Underground Strike On

UPDATE - 5pm - I've just learnt that today's talks have broken down, so it looks like the strike will be going ahead from 6.30pm on Sunday 8th January for 24 hours.

See the BBC for the latest on this. However, if it is anything like the New Year's Eve strike the majority of the station staff will still carry on working.

The last weekday London Underground strike was in June 2004, even though with the continuous threat we get of them, people may be surprised to learn that it was as long ago as that!

London Underground are asking the RMT to return to the negotiating table: "'We remain committed to resolving this dispute at any time and with the least possible inconvenience to Londoners.' If the strike goes ahead it would affect services from 1830 on Sunday evening and all day Monday. As on New Year's Eve, LU would again seek to run the best service possible on these days."

Meanwhile, the RMT offices will be open on Sunday from 13.00 to "improve our organisation on the day of this strike". You can read Bob Crow's and RMT's instructions to striking staff here.


RMT and London Underground actually meet today to try to resolve strike

Well after all the kerfuffle about talks to avert the last Tube strike, it looks like the ones today at concilliation service Acas are due to go ahead. It also looks like Bob Crow is actually shortening his Eyptian holiday by one day to be there, as yesterday he agreed to attend.

We already know that Mr Crow is also planning on balloting members "blatant breaches of safety" during the New Year's Eve strike, when the majority of stations actually operated in spite of the strike. Crow is proposing a "go slow" (will we even notice on certain lines?) rather than an all out strike to protest about this. These breaches of safety are "strenuously denied" by London Underground (LU).

Sheriff Ken Livingstone told BBC London that he predicted several more strikes by the RMT who, he claimed, were left shame faced when the majority of Tube station staff turned up for work on the 31st December.

"Rather than say they made a mistake, they will dig in and try to make the next strike more effective," he said.

If today's talks do not resolve the issues, there will be a London Underground strike from 6.30pm on Sunday 8th January for 24 hours.

You were all very vociferous with your comments on the New Year's Eve strike (which was great!), so what do you think will happen with the next planned one?

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, January 04, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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