Tube maintenance workers begin strike
Hundreds of London Underground maintenance workers have begun the first of a series of 24-hour strikes this morning in protest over new roster arrangements.
Friday, 05, Feb 2010 02:39
By Alex Plough
Tube maintenance workers begin strike
Hundreds of London Underground maintenance workers have begun the first of a series of 24-hour strikes this morning in protest over new roster arrangements.
Around 750 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union are refusing to work from 06:45 GMT today and will continue to cause disruptions at the same time every Sunday from February 14th until the dispute is resolved.
The industrial action is affecting all underground lines except the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines.
A Transport for London spokesman said: "Despite strike action by the RMT, a good service is operating across the London Underground network this morning."
"There have been some minor issues which we would expect on a normal day, but we have worked to fix those as quickly as possible. The RMT leadership should end this industrial action. The only thing it is achieving is losing their members pay."
The dispute is centred on overtime payments for maintenance shifts as well as fears over job losses after the outsourcing of some services to other firms.
A London Underground spokesperson said yesterday: "The RMT have made clear they want fare payers money to cover planned maintenance shifts by increasing overtime payments.
"Union bosses have also tried to claim that their members' jobs are at risk from external contractors even though an arrangement to use contractors only to address specific issues has been in place for some time."
But union representatives claim that the company had been "unilaterally ripping up agreements" and that over 90 per cent of staff had voted in favour of the strikes.
RMT leader Bob Crow said: "Our members are rock solid in their support for this strike and in their determination to defend their jobs and working conditions.
"LU have been hell-bent on confrontation through their tearing up of the signals framework agreement and through the unilateral introduction of new working practices which mean they can make people work what hours they like, when they like."