London Underground Strike: RMT Union Members Walk Out for Higher Wages

Jan 5, 2024 at 8:44 PM Update: 6 hours ago

The London Underground is unlikely to run for most of next week. Members of the RMT union are going on strike for higher wages. The final negotiations with the employer that could have prevented the action have not yielded any results.

The industrial action formally starts on Friday when maintenance staff stop work. The biggest impact is expected after other colleagues joined the strike on Sunday evening. The expectation is that there will probably be hardly any metros running for days afterwards.

Transport for London, which is responsible for public transport in the British capital, has already warned that there may be disruptions to lines other than the London Underground. This concerns the so-called Elizabeth Line, the Overground and the DLR.

The conflict revolves around the 5 percent wage increase offered by the employer. According to the outraged metro staff, this is far too little because executives at the company would receive much more pay increases.

A strike had also been announced by the RMT in October. That action was canceled at the last minute. Back then it was not about higher wages, but about jobs and working conditions.

Unions in the United Kingdom have held many protests and strikes since inflation started to rise following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Most of these wage disputes have now been settled, but not all of them yet. Earlier this week, thousands of junior doctors left work because negotiations with the government over their salaries had stalled.

• No solution for Eurostar to London: train will not run for six months

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Beeld: Getty Images

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2024-01-05 19:44:52
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