On the twelfth day of Christmas, 5th and 6th of January, the RMT is giving London a little something to round off the season: 24 hours of Tube strike action, starting at 6pm on the Friday, by operations and maintenance staff.
That’s going to be followed by two days of action by control centre staff, and then, on the 8th and 10th, all other staff belonging to the union – the vast majority of Tube station staff - will go on strike.
Except it won’t be over then; there’ll be more strikes by selected workers on the 9th and 11th. And bear in mind that strikes always have an extra day to give, to sort out the way Tube trains end up in the wrong place afterwards.
But to look on the bright side, they did work on New Year’s Eve and Christmas Eve – and many of us will grimly remember a previous train strike by the RMT on Christmas Eve. Thanks for that, Mick Lynch, RMT leader.
Workers won't know if strikes will actually stop services so they’ll stay at home
The thing about the week of this strike, though, is that it’s when many people will be getting back to work after the Christmas break. Except they now won’t. They won’t know whether the floating strikes by successive groups of workers will actually stop services so they’ll stay at home. And they’ll definitely be staying at home on the 8th and 10th when most station staff are downing tools, and given that it’s a Monday and Wednesday, they’ll probably make a week of it.
What do you reckon that will do to the London economy?
They’ve been offered an above inflation figure at a time when most of us, self included, are getting significantly less
And the grounds for the strike? Transport for London is offering Underground workers a five per cent pay rise. Last month’s inflation figure (CPI) was just under four per cent. So, they’re getting an above inflation figure at a time when most of us, self included, are getting significantly less. From here, that doesn’t look like a bad deal. Aslef, which represents the majority of Tube drivers, has already accepted the deal.
Mick Lynch, like the late Bob Crow before him, is a clever man. He knows that ultimately, the Underground, like rail services, have to be paid for. If more people work from home – figures for public transport use by rail this month are down by 12 per cent from previous years – there’ll be less revenue. And if people can’t rely on the Tube, then the case for not commuting becomes weaker.
For once, it would be nice if the RMT could bear in mind the interests of those who pay their wages: us.
