Tube strike action on as London Underground reject RMT proposals
Tube strike action starting this evening, over the closure of ticket office and the axing of safety-critical jobs, is on after London Underground management rejected a series of proposals from RMT negotiators that could have created the grounds for a suspension.
At talks convened through ACAS this morning, RMT set out a whole series of grounds which would have allowed progress to be made, the whole package was rejected out of hand by the London Underground management.

RMT Acting General Secretary Mick Cash said:
“London Underground have dug themselves into an entrenched position and have refused to move one inch from their stance of closing every ticket office, in breach of the agreement reached previously through ACAS which enabled us to suspend the previous round of action.
“Despite the spin from LU nothing that they are proposing is about 'modernisation'. The current plans, closing every ticket office and axing nearly a thousand safety-critical jobs, is solely about massive austerity cuts driven centrally by David Cameron and his Government and implemented by Mayor Boris Johnson.
“RMT could have recommended the suspension of this strike action if LU had responded positively to our proposal to halt the implementation of these savage cuts, stopping the dire impact they would have the length and breadth of London Underground.

“Elected members of the GLA have called for a public consultation on these cuts and the future of the tube. RMT agrees with that. If LU had agreed a full and proper public consultation, involving everyone with a stake in the future of a tube network facing surging demand and growing pressures, and agreed to halt the implementation of the cuts, RMT was prepared to recommend suspending the action. We believe that this was a sensible and productive way to proceed but it has been rejected wholesale by tube managers who seem hell-bent on confrontation.

“As a consequence of the management stance the action, which is about halting savage, cash-led attacks on jobs, services and safety, goes ahead as planned. RMT remains available for serious and meaningful talks around our demands".