Unions call off London Underground strikes after ‘intense’ talks
Three unions have called off strikes across London Underground next week following “intense” last-minute talks with the UK capital’s public transport body.
The RMT, Unite and Aslef unions said on Friday they had suspended walkouts set for between July 23 and July 29 after successful negotiations with Transport for London.
Their announcement came as a two-day stoppage by the most senior NHS doctors in England drew to a close with no sign of a resolution to stave off more strikes planned for August.
The transport unions had called the walkouts, which were set to cause severe disruption by shutting down swaths of the Tube network, as part of a long-running dispute with TfL over pensions, changes to working practices and possible job cuts.
Finn Brennan, of drivers’ union Aslef, said both sides had taken “a major step forward” following “a week of intense negotiations”, adding: “We have made real progress in making sure our members’ working conditions and pensions are protected.”
Pension reform had emerged as one of the most contentious parts of the dispute after TfL agreed to make savings in return for repeated government bailouts at the height of the pandemic, when revenue collapsed.
Aslef on Friday published a letter in which TfL guaranteed no changes to its pension scheme until September 2026 at the earliest. The body also put forward new proposals on changes to working practices and conditions, such as employee attendance management.
The unions’ suspension of walkouts came as a boost for London mayor Sadiq Khan, whose plans to expand a flagship clean air policy were blamed for Labour’s failure to win Thursday’s by-election in Uxbridge.
“Despite the government’s onerous funding conditions, we’ve avoided strikes. This is what you can achieve when you work with, not against, unions,” he said.
Mick Lynch, RMT general secretary, acknowledged “significant progress” between both sides but warned that the decision to pause the strikes was “not the end of the dispute” and that its campaign “to defend job, conditions and our members’ pensions will continue”.
Separate industrial action by the RMT, which is locked in a dispute with train operating companies, is set to cause widespread disruption on Britain’s mainline services this Sunday and on July 29.
Meanwhile health leaders on Friday called on the government and unions to restart pay talks as a 48-hour walkout by consultants in England drew to an end.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak this month announced pay deals for public sector workers of between 5 per cent and 7 per cent, insisting that no amount of strikes would change his “final” offer.
But the British Medical Association said the offer of a 6 per cent wage increase for junior doctors and senior NHS staff was not “credible”.
Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents health groups across the country, said that while the stoppage had affected trusts to different extents, “tackling [care] backlogs is increasingly becoming an uphill struggle the longer these strikes go on”.
With another 48-hour walkout set for August 24, he urged ministers and unions “for the sake of patients and staff . . . to end the stand-off by entering serious talks about pay”.
Matthew Taylor, head of the NHS Confederation, a representative body, said the health service was “crying out for industrial action to come to an end, so that staff and leaders can get back to tackling the backlogs”.
Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of charity Cancer Research UK, also pressed both sides to strike a deal, voicing concern that “current industrial action will cause significant disruption to [cancer patients’] care”.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Philip Georgiadis
