SOCIALIST UNITY

You will recall that during last year’s London mayoral election, Boris Johnson made a great play of the fact that he would end industrial action on the Underground, rather naively beleiving that the RMT could be cajolled into a no strike pledge. Well now Boris has the opportunity to rather more usefully prevent industrial action by entering into direct talks with the RMT, and banging the heads together of the intransigent and bloody-minded managers at London Underground and Transport for London (TfL)

Yesterday, the RMT, the main tube union, confirmed that there were overwhelming votes for industrial action following the breakdown in industrial relations with London Underground and TfL. RMT members voted by huge majorities for strike action in separate disputes with LUL and TfL over pay, job losses and working conditions. The union has announced 48 hours of strike action commencing at 18.59 hrs on Tuesday 9th June through to 18.58 hrs on Thursday 11th June.

RMT have slammed a total failure to engage in meaningful negotiations on the part of LUL and TfL management. Tube bosses have stonewalled on pay since last November and instead have sought to impose a five year deal which would be likely to result in a pay cut in real terms. The management have also suggested that they have “no mandate” to negotiate on pay, leaving open the suggestion that they are waiting for a steer from London Mayor Boris Johnson.

“RMT General Secretary Bob Crow sai: “RMT are in no doubt that this dispute has been deliberately provoked by managers who have gone out of their way to engineer confrontation. They will have known very well that RMT would never agree to pay cuts and compulsory redundancies and they have made a mockery of the negotiating process,”

“There has been a total breakdown of industrial relations and that’s why RMT are calling for direct talks with London Mayor Boris Johnson in an effort to resolve the current dispute. ”