This time, I agree with the strikers on the Tube

For starters, the comrades are joined by a far more moderate union, the TSSA, without the same history of militancy and greed. And that's because the main issue is a real one: TfL's plans for drastic cuts to station booking offices.

Thirty-nine offices will close entirely and 61 will have their opening hours cut. Not a great idea when the Underground has never been busier, or more at risk from terrorism.

TfL (correctly) says Oyster has reduced the need for ticket offices. But there have already been big staff cuts and considerable demand for a human ticket office presence clearly remains. Every time I've used the Tube recently, there have always been queues, both at the ticket window and at the inadequate number of machines (often no more than one per station) which top up Oyster.

So I hope the brothers win this one and I expect they will. But I hope, too, that it triggers a broader rebalancing of the often abusive relationship between unions and Tube management - and here I am less optimistic.

For sure, next week's strike further increases the chance of Boris Johnson becoming Mayor - and for sure, Boris speaks of "taking on" the RMT. But I'm not sure he realises how hard that would be.

The Tube cannot be a sub-surface Wapping, where Rupert Murdoch destroyed the Fleet Street print unions. Murdoch could train scab printworkers off-site and bus them in, while the sacked union members raged helplessly from the wrong side of the wire. But the only place Boris can train scab Tube drivers is on the Tube - and the unions would never, ever let that happen.

Another possibility, raised by the Lib-Dems' Brian Paddick, is to run each Tube line as a separate semi-private concession, like the DLR and buses. Without the nuclear weapon of the system-wide strike, the unions could be tackled one line at a time. That, too, seems the kind of thing they would never allow.

The only strategy that might work is subtler: to weaken the RMT in small, carefully-planned steps over several years, then play them off against the other drivers' union, Aslef, in the inevitable final showdown. Boris might gamble that Tube drivers are now so well-paid they can no longer afford to sacrifice their mortgaged, middle-class lifestyles to a long strike.

But if, in eight years, Ken hasn't managed to weaken the unions in the slightest, I don't think Boris is going to do it either. By calling this strike at this time, the RMT is clearly agreeing. It is signalling it does not fear Johnson. It might even see him as a softer touch.

And there is also this point: a neutered RMT might not always be in our interest as passengers. Sometimes, as in the ticket office dispute, our interests coincide.