London Underground Strikes July 2023

Later this month, London Underground employees will walk out for four straight days as their ongoing pay dispute shows no signs of being resolved.

Workers are also fighting for better pensions and working conditions, and last week the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) announced the walkouts.

According to the union, hundreds of jobs related to maintenance and Tube stations would be eliminated.

In a different disagreement over pensions and working conditions, tube drivers who are represented by the Aslef union have declared they will also strike. They participate in the July 26 and 28 walkouts.

To learn more about the issue and how it will affect travellers, continue reading:

What time does the strike start?

The following days, according to the RMT, will see a strike by London Underground employees:

Sunday, July 23, and Tuesday, July 25

Wednesday, July 26, Thursday, July 27, and Friday, July 28

There won't be a strike on Monday, July 24, according to the union.

What lines are going to be impacted?

More than 10,000 employees are allowed to strike, but different parts of the Tube network and worker grades will be impacted on different days.

Which lines will be impacted on various days is not yet known.

What are the union leaders saying?

The strike would "shut down the tube," according to Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT, and "show just how important these workers were."

"Plans by Transport for London (TfL) to cut 600 jobs and target the pensions of our members are just unacceptable," he declared.

"We are aware that TfL's budget was reduced under Mayor Sadiq Khan of London. He must, however, join forces with our union and his London Underground employees to oppose the Conservative Government and expose their destructive plan for a vital component of the city's transit system.

The union has joined the RMT-announced Tube strikes, according to Aslef's full-time organiser on the London Underground, since the proposed changes would make it "impossible" for drivers to "organise their lives outside of work."

We only take action when necessary, according to Finn Brennan. In spite of trade union opposition, the last few weeks have unfortunately demonstrated that London Underground management is determined to try and impose unfavourable reforms if they believe they can get away with it.

"They have already stated that they want to begin training managers on a new attendance method in August and execute it starting in January, disobeying the previously agreed-upon protocol.

"Under this new method, all warnings would be doubled in length from 26 to 52 weeks, and there would be no right to representation or appeal at stage one of the disciplinary process.

"All absences lasting more than a week would be considered 'long term', allowing a manager to redeploy a driver without further discussion. A driver may be "terminated" after only six weeks of deployment, to use their terminology.

"Management also wants to impose its ideas for what it calls "train modernization" on the public. They want that fixed links, 'flexible cover' weeks in every roster, driving shifts up to 10 hours long, and unlimited remote booking on and off be implemented.

"That would prevent Tube train drivers from planning their lives outside of work or from having a reliable procedure for changeovers.

"Their goal is to replace all current contracts with a totally flexible workforce, allowing them to eliminate hundreds more jobs and making those of us who remain work longer hours and harder. Our members are prepared to take action to safeguard our pensions, working conditions, and agreements.

What response has Transport for London provided?

TfL's COO, Glynn Barton, stated: "We are disappointed that the RMT has announced strike action on this range of issues that we have been trying to openly and cooperatively engage with them.

"We are pleading with the union to think again and work with us to explore the problems and find a solution."

The government transport agency claimed there are no current plans to alter its pension policies, but it is looking into a number of ideas to make sure no employees lose their jobs or are required to work more hours.

According to the RMT, 20,000 train employees in the UK will also go on strike in July.

London Underground Strikes July 2023