Tube Strike Notice for 20th August 2008

From Friday you might have seen notices like the one below about the upcoming Tube Strike. In case you didn't know from noon on the 20th August till noon on Saturday 23rd August, around a thousand London Underground maintenance workers who work for Tube Lines will be staging a 72 hour strike over pay.


Now even though this is maintenance workers and not drivers or other London Underground staff, it is going to seriously affect the Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly Lines as a number of safety procedures won't be in place or have been checked and, quite rightly, the staff might not be able to run trains on those lines.

It'll also mean that other lines will be very overcrowded as we all try to find alternative routes to travel. The notice above is as neutral as it can be - saying "may" and "might", but personally I can't see the pay dispute being resolved in the next 24 hours.

But who knows, maybe RMT leader Bob Crow will have a brain wave and decide that a 4.95% payrise isn't that bad after all. Specially when it's over the rate of inflation (4.4%) and the average pay rise in the UK is only 3.7% and emergency workers like nurses are only looking at a pay increase of 2.5%

It was quite funny that my friend Ms.Jen from the US left the following comment on my Flickr picture when the strike was first announced:

"They schedule strikes? Shouldn't it be rather spontaneous to really mess up the works?

T'would seem that a scheduled strike is a fancy name for a holiday holding a sign... ;-) "

That's what quite a few people in the UK think as well. Thankfully though legally the RMT and other unions operating "essential" services have to give notice and can't carry out the sudden "wildcat" walkouts of the past.


Watch this blog, TfL's website and the news for details of whether this week's strike goes ahead and get prepared for the next one which is planned for noon on Wednesday September 3rd till noon on Saturday September 6th.


Update - Jon Justice spotted an interesting piece in the Evening Standard from Tube Lines' Chief Exec who believes the strike is purely political and not about pay.

UPDATE - I was wrong about them reaching an agreement - they have!!! Which means the Tube Strike is off!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, August 19, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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