Victoria line staff belonging to the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union are to hold a 24-hour strike from 2130 BST on 5 October in a dispute over workloads.
The threatened strike is the latest under Mayor Boris Johnson who chairs the Transport for London board and promised to negotiate a ‘no-strike’ deal with Tube staff during the election.
The union say the action has been caused by management “unilaterally” going back on a deal to minimise so-called rounder turns – where train operators undertake five return journeys in a day – because of poor air cooling on the Tube. It claims London Underground went back on this deal with the opening of the depot at Brixton since when drivers have been put on five round trips.
Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary, said new rosters were “about management trying to carve up the staff working day to fit in with bad decisions that they have made – particularly the botched opening of the new depot in Brixton.”
Mr Crow an “underhand attempt to extract an extra 20% from the working day out of our members has provoked this action on the Victoria Line and we would urge the management side to re-open serious negotiations to resolve this issue.”
A spokesperson for LU said “London Underground consulted fully with unions earlier this year on plans to improve efficiency on the Victoria Line for passengers.
“A key plank of this is to look at how drivers’ rosters can be organised to make the best use of staff time.
“Drivers already operate five-round trips per shift on the Victoria line at weekends, an arrangement which has never caused any problems for staff.”
