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Tube strike called off at last minute
Dick Murray, Transport Editor19.08.08
The Tube strike was dramatically called off late this afternoon.
Union bosses were set to finalise the deal tonight after Tube Lines offered small improvements to pay and working conditions.
RMT negotiators were recommending acceptance pending further negotiations.
It was a climb-down by Tube Lines who had previously insisted the "final deal" was already on the table.
A 72-hour strike, due to begin at Noon tomorrow and spread over four days, would have crippled services on the Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines and lost the national economy around £50 million.
Reader views (15)
Well done Bob Crow and the RMT. It's good to see that somebody still sticks up for the low paid workers in this country, after they were abandoned by New Labour.
- Mick, London, England
Another example of the final bastion of dinosaurs the RMT and their leader Bob Crow, exercising the mindset of thuggery so evident before so many of his kind were eradicated.
Soon, this lot will hopefully go the same way.
- John, Peterborough, England
This is crazy! We ban the police from striking, yet these people are consistently demonstrating their willingness to hold the city to ransom. They have great pay already and it's hardly rocket science (much as the tube system is amazing and complex)! The are slow, and unfriendly in the main (most ticket barrier staff exempt from this comment). We should have a commuter strike demanding theirs and their bosses take a pay cut for the ongoing surliness, crappy days when not enough staff turn up to work and their exasperating inability to keep the signals working properly! Pathetic bunch they are! London commuters should all drive in and clog the city for a day to show their contempt Flip side, lie down and take it like the pathetic dogs we are! Hmmmm...
- London W9, London W9
Maggie would have sorted these fools out.
As for 2012, you could give them 10% and they'd still find a reason to walk out.
- Des Stockton, Wickford, Essex
The strike wasn't really about money its the way tubelines are run. Bullying managers all over the lines, track signals and depots, they do nothing but lie lie lie, and budget cuts, why pay the directors over 100,000 each for what?
What company has a store, that charges you to take equipment out, and if you don't use it charges you to put it back, stupid, tubelines are going broke.
- With Held, london
We should face down these bullies once and for all. They need to be taught a lesson.
- Paul, London,UK
These greedy thungs just want more and more, we the public are made to suffer! they are getting more then the average wages and benefits and they want more! this is just greed! Let them go on strike lets see how long they can do it for.
- Jon, London
This is hardly an advert for travelling by public transport. My car doesn't go on strike because of pay offers. I have to commute to London as a contractor in construction. Using public transport is touted as green and reasonably cheap. Other workers are being forced to accept lesser pay deals as economic screws are turned, so what makes these guys, who seem to be quite well paid by most standards, different from teachers and firemen who don't get offered free travel as well as above inflation pay settlements. Nothing short of blackmail to a captive audience. However they have one reasonable point. Half the tube network maintenance staff should not get paid more than the other half. Solution. One company to maintain the lot. Sorted.
- Brett, London UK
These guys are being paid between £32,000 and £52,000 - this seems to be a considerable amount more than a lot of Londoners. I understand wanting a pay rise, but the only people it really affects are the commuters... again.
- Gary, London
Their salaries *start* at £32K and they want more than 4.8% increase this year? How difficult is it to drive a tube train, sell tube tickets etc?
If they get away with this, I will be looking to change job. Or maybe I should get a T-shirt to wear during the strikes "My rise was below inflation and I don't get to strike. Why should the RMT?"
- James Rigg, London, UK
High time the law was changed to allow both companies and individuals to sue the Unions for loss of earnings.
These thugs in the RMT have been making peoples lives a misery for years now and God knows how many people have lost money through their actions.
Bob Crowe comes across as a ill bred bullyboy who is only happy causing trouble. These types think it makes them important but that is far from the truth they are despised. What private company dare treat it's customers the way the RMT treat the passengers on the tubes. They would be out of business in a week.
- Kenherts, Enfield
Hmm, funny they've scheduled it for the day of the England game. I just hope Tube Lines stands up to these bullies... I'm more than happy to put up with the inconvenience if it starves the unions out.
- Mark`, London
And what's to stop this sort of blackmail during the London 2012 Olympics?
- Philip, London, England
I have a thought for all the commuters who will have a lot of problems to simply go working if the strike will take place tomorrow. but I also have a thought to the maintenance tube staff who work hard and have good reasons to do it. I hope for everybody a solution could be quickly found without any losers.
Well I have also heard there would be a new strike next Wednesday on the Piccadilly line that I use when I go to London from LHR. I have to not forget to put good walking shoes in my luggage.
good luck!
- Anne-Laure, geneva switzerland
There are plenty of people who would be glad to work hard for just £30,000 per year in London - including work-ethic-minded Easter Europeans. So sack this lot of grasping spongers and get a new team in.
- Mikko Takala, Drumnadrochit, Scotland
