The RMT union is set to take more industrial action after calling a 24-hour strike on the London Underground Central Line and announcing a breakdown of talks with Southern.
RMT Central Line drivers will walk out from 9pm on Tuesday, 21 February, until the same time on Wednesday, 22 February, with severe disruption continuing all day and knock-on crowding effects likely to be felt on other lines.
The dispute is over what RMT calls the ‘forced displacement’ of drivers their home depots at the eastern end of the line to others in central London. Transport for London has denied the move has been forced.
Mick Cash, RMT general secretary, said the move would result in members being ‘sent out from pillar to post to plug gaps that are solely down to staffing shortages’.
Southern talks breakdown
Mr Cash accused Southern of being ‘pig-headed’ and ‘bulldozing through driver only operation’, with no regard for safety.
He said he had received no guarantees on a second ‘safety critical’ member of staff and criticised a previous deal with Aslef, which Southern’s owner Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) said included an agreement on there being a second person (OBS) on every train that previously had a conductor.
There was also an agreed a list of exceptional circumstances when a train can run without that second person (OBS). Aslef drivers are currently voting on the agreement and the result is expected on Thursday 16 February.
Nick Brown, chief operating officer of GTR said: ‘Over the past year the RMT has had 28 days of strikes on this one issue, we’ve seen in excess 20,000 trains cancelled as a result, thousands of journeys disrupted, people’s work and family lives badly impacted and the cost to the regional economy is in excess of £300m.
‘We’ve fully implemented our modernisation programme with the driver opening and closing the doors and a second person focused on customer service on our trains. Everyone is sick and tired of the RMT’s strikes and their pointless and intransigent stance needs to stop, and stop now.’
He accused RMT of ‘seeking to hang on to its power to cancel trains’.
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