Tube workers plan to stage a 48-hour strike in a row over staff transfers and pensions.
The strike will begin at 1030 BST on Monday 28 April, the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said.
It said Transport for London (TfL) had not provided written guarantees on pensions and travel provision for 2,500 staff at failed private firm Metronet.
TfL previously said it assured the RMT that no staff would lose jobs, pensions or be transferred.
The RMT wants a guarantee that Metronet workers will be allowed to join the TfL pension scheme and receive the same travel facilities as other TfL employees.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said it had only received “hedged, qualified and ambiguous” guarantees from TfL.
“The RMT executive was left with no choice but to set strike dates,” Mr Crow said.
‘Shameful behaviour’
Tube maintenance firm Metronet went into administration last July after an estimated £2bn overspend.
Last month, the House of Commons Transport Committee said the company and its shareholders were “primarily responsible” for its collapse.
Mr Crow said the union was “adamant” that its members would “not be made to pay” for the collapse of Metronet and the “shameful behaviour” of its shareholders.
“The shareholders who walked away from Metronet’s corpse are being rewarded with fat PFI (Private Finance Initiative) contracts, yet the people who have stuck with the job of improving the Tube are supposed to accept uncertainty over their jobs, pensions and conditions. That is not on,” Mr Crow said.
“We have already made it clear that the collapse of Metronet should not be used as a Trojan horse for a two-tier workforce.”
TfL has yet to respond to the RMT’s strike decision.
Last week a TfL spokesman said: “Industrial action would be completely unnecessary and not achieve anything.”
This will be my 1st strike experience since working in London but it’s not going to be too bad as I am off on the 29th anyway for the LB track day 
will just have to put up with it on the monday 
yeh im off college both those days too , so thats good .
just means i have to walk to where my cbt is on the monday , not that far though
I don`t care i ride a bike.
I’ve been on strike a couple of times and it’s a bloody experience.
Strikes are (like war) a failure of diplomacy, but when one side refuses to see the unreasonable position they are taking or holding at the expense of the other, the aggrieved have little choice.
I know it’s a pain in the a*se for the commuters, but my sympathy is with RMT members on this. They are not asking for more money, better holidays or a shorter week. (Most skilled jobs are paid quite well.) They just want a little security of employment and a reasonably assured future equal to TfL employees.
Remind me. Do TfL own the tranport system or are they just employed persons as well?
Oldguy.
(Does the “f” in TfL really stand for Transport FOR London?)
Never mind the tube strikes…the bl**dy teachers are on strike next week as well!
this really does not affect me as I’m on the bike, but it does get on my goat that they will strike about everything!!I mean come on, strike because £35k a year 52 days holiday and a bouns is not enough each year.
Sorry a copper gets what around £25k a year, 21-25 days holiday a year and most will work christmas and new years. Plus these boys put there lives on the line every time they walk out on the street
Also one of the most dangeours jobs is a fisher man with an average pay pf £14k a year, but I still see fish on my plate!!
don’t see them going on strike 17 times a year though do you!
Posting a vote on this one is difficult for me, I have not used public transport for ages. Yet I am splt between part of me agreeing that the strike actions are a nuisance to commuters but then again part of me realize that if these people are striking is not because they are lazy or feel the desire to disrupt the services for the heck of it, I believe they use strikes as their only means of making their needs heard and noticed by their authorities and the general public so… its 50/50 split decision. I say let them strike and either take a day off or find alternative ways of commuting. Bring back bicycles is all I say!! Healthy, economic, and eco friendly.
Not knowing the full ins and outs from both sides I couldn’t make a call on whether they are justified in doing this or not.
In general I do have sympathy for people looking to protect things like pay/pension/working conditions BUT strike is a drastic form of action and in many ways quite selfish one, given the impact on other Londoners.
In my mind it’s the absolute last course of action, however the RMT in particular seem to have a tendancy to threaten this all the time, without first committing to resolving the issues via a process of negotiation.
Given the history of the London Tube system and the dire running of that by different organisations, it’s not surprising that the RMT are so often threatening or taking strike action.
Mostly, they have been protesting against lowering of standards, notably safety, imposed new employment conditions and long term employment/pension matters.
If that has lead to strikes, it reflects as much on the ***eholes who run the system as it does on RMT.
Oldguy.
Well I’m on a course on the 29th, which means I can’t make the LB track day during the day but I hope to come along for the barbie in the evening, so as long as my journey to and from the course isn’t mightly screwed up I won’t care! If I have to get up extra early and don’t get home till late I may lose the motivation to get the bike out and shoot down to Brands to meet up with everyone, which would be a bummer. :ermm:
Generally I support strike action if the reasoning is sound, just as long as it’s not the first course of action adopted by a union rather than a last resort because management just won’t listen to their concerns.
As far as I’m aware this is now not going ahead.
I don’t give a monkey, I have a scooter!
You’ve just got to love PTW.
Apart from some extra numties and a few more chicanes on the road, none of us seem too concerned whether there is or isn’t a tube strike.
Oldguy.
I don’t care either, I’m in Texas.
I’d say the Union needs to be careful, that they don’t torque management off so much that the management pull a union busting stunt or 3.
and a petrol blockade is being planned for those days too
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=560964&in_page_id=1770