Nick Ferrari outraged by London night tube driver strikes

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Strike action is arranged to take place on five separate London Underground lines for 24 hours, starting from early this morning. Union bosses say tube drivers have been left with little choice but to engage in the measures, after new work rotas, relating to the restart of the night tube, threatened to ruin the work-life balance of employees.

Where and when are the strikes taking place?

Today a 24-hour strike will begin that affects five separate tube lines on the London Underground.

The affected lines include Victoria, Central, Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines.

Strike action was arranged to begin from 4.30am this morning and finish 24 hours later.

Transport for London (TfL) said the strike will result in “little or no services in place”. The Waterloo and City line – which uses Central line drivers – are also likely to be impacted.

Why are tube drivers striking?

The dispute relates to night shifts that tube drivers are being asked to work, because of new working hours introduced to enable the restart of the Night Tube.

The service is due to resume overnight on Saturday evening (November 27) for the first time since the pandemic began.

Last May, the decision was made to merge the Night Tube’s workforce – around 200 part-time drivers – with the ‘day’ tube staff.

Consequently, all drivers could be required to work occasional Night Tube shifts.

TfL states that the changes had been agreed upon by other unions and would result in drivers working roughly four night shifts per year.

However, The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) argues that the new working hours would wreck havoc on drivers’ work-life balance by “bulldozing through additional night and weekend working”.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, the RMT General Secretary, Mick Lynch, said: “This strike is about the ripping apart of popular and family friendly agreements that helped make the original Night Tube such a success.

“Instead the company want to cut costs and lump all drivers into a pool where they can be kicked from pillar to post at the behest of the management.

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“We have made every effort in ACAS (The Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service) and direct talks since the off to resolve this dispute but it is clear that London Underground bosses are driven solely by the bottom line and have no interest whatsoever in the well-being of their staff or the service to passengers.”

This weekend’s action is also due to affect the resumption of the Night Tube, as tube drivers have been told not to work from 8.30pm on Saturday evening until 4.30am on Sunday.

In addition further strikes are planned to take place on the Central and Victoria lines each weekend in the run-up to Christmas.

Strike action is set to culminate on the final Saturday before Christmas with a five-line 24-hour shutdown.

TfL bosses called on the RMT yesterday to cancel this weekend’s strike action and enter discussions regarding staff requirements for the Night Tube.

They said that the RMT hasn’t presented “any workable alternatives” to the rota changes and had refused an offer to jointly review the Night Tube after a trial period.

Nick Dent, Director of London Underground Customer Operations, said: “The RMT’s planned strike action is needless and it will threaten London’s recovery from the pandemic, despite no job losses and more flexibility and job certainty for drivers.

“While every other union has agreed to these changes and our staff have been enjoying the benefits of the changes since August, we’re willing to work with the RMT and review the changes after Night Tube services have returned.”

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