Oct. 4: Only 30 to 40 per cent of London Underground service ran this Monday morning, as the transport unions RMT and TSSA staged the second round of the “walkout’ to protest the proposed job cuts that may affect over 800 LU staff.
A 24-hour strike, which started on Sunday afternoon, affected millions of Londoners trying to get to work on time. The union leaders have been trying to propel the view that the cuts will lead to weaker staff strength attending to the commuters on stations, which may have health and safety related repercussions.
As the commuters endure the inconvenience angrily, the London city mayor Boris Johnson has labelled the industrial unrest: a political strike. “This is a nakedly political strike. It has nothing, whatever, to do with health and safety — nor have the union leaderships raised any such fears in the course of the negotiations. It is irresponsible politically motivated nonsense, and above all it will not succeed,” dismisses the mayor.
He explained that the TFL was trying to make moderate changes to the ticket office arrangements; to reflect increased use of the automatic Oyster system and decrease use of manned ticketing offices. On average a ticket office in a London tube station sells less than ten tickets in an hour.
Picketing outside around 38 stations, the TSSA and RSA members insist that they are fighting to defend Tube safety. Ridiculing these claims, the TFL bosses have said that these non-compulsory redundancies will affect only five per cent of LU’s workforce and the Tube’s high safety standards will not be compromised.
A series of squabbling statements exchanged between the two sides expose their political interests in this issue.