War of words: What the parties say...

Leader Bob Crow accuses management of "threatening to tear up an agreement aimed at safeguarding jobs", and is demanding a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies.

Mayor Boris Johnson has ordered 1,000 jobs to go at LU and hundreds more at TfL to help cut spending by £2.4 billion over the coming decade.

The union claims job losses could reach 3,000 — a figure also revealed to the Standard by senior TfL sources.

It says LU has refused to budge from an "unacceptable five-year pay offer which gives no real-term increase for four years and which could even see pay cut".

The union also alleges bullying and intimidation of its members by LU management.

What LU management say

Jobs must go at LU because it had to take over the 7,000 employees from Metronet, the private-sector maintenance consortium which went bust last year with debts of £2 billion.

Bosses say "every effort" will be made to avoid compulsory redundancies but cannot give a guarantee, although they pledge that no frontline staff will go.

On pay, they say the RMT is demanding a "five per cent pay rise for fewer hours in the middle of a recession".

LU is offering staff a "fair and affordable deal" of a one per cent pay increase in year one, with rises of RPI plus 0.5 per cent in years two to five.

It denies claims by the RMT that management have bullied and intimidated staff.