Tube commuters face delays and disruption in latest industrial action

Dispute: Engineers started industrial action across the Tube on Tuesday
Nigel Howard
Saphora Smith7 March 2017

Commuters face increasing and continuing disruption on the London Underground as hundreds of engineers begin industrial action across the network.

Engineers who maintain train fleets on Tube lines introduced a work to rule, banning overtime and withdrawing all “goodwill” gestures, on Tuesday.

The action will mean getting trains back up and running when problems occur, and regular maintenance, will take longer - causing delays and disruption on the Underground network.

RMT leaders have ordered continuous industrial action rather than a specific strike period.

They have alleged “numerous unresolved breaches of agreed machineries and agreements” including those covering the Night Tube.

Tube Strike: 22nd February 2017

1/7

A London Underground (LU) spokesman said: “We urge the RMT leadership to work with us constructively on the issues it has raised rather than threaten unnecessary industrial action.”

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “The RMT’s position could not be clearer and it is down to LU to start taking this list of grievances seriously, to stop trying to impose fundamental changes to agreed policies and working conditions and to halt the bullying and harassment of our reps.”

He said the RMT remains available for “serious talks.”

The industrial action starts almost a week after the Government passed a new law stipulating that 50 per cent of workers eligible to vote must do so for any action to go ahead.

Had the RMT strike been voted on this week it would not be allowed to take place because only 43 per cent of engineers voted – 323 voting out of 751.

However the new legislation cannot be applied retrospectively.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in