RMT in new Tube strike threat over cutbacks

Tube passengers today faced a second threat of strike action.

RMT union leaders have given maintenance firm Tube Lines until Thursday to guarantee that there will be no reduction of safety standards, job cuts or changes to working conditions as a result of an increasing cash crisis.

The company is responsible for the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines. Bob Crow, the RMT leader, is demanding "concrete assurances that Tube Lines will pull back from attacks on jobs, safety and working conditions as a result of the £1.3 billion funding row with the Mayor.

"Essential Tube works, and the jobs and conditions of our members, should not end up as the collateral damage in the war over the failed Tube privatisation experiment," he said. If the deadline was not met the union "will be in dispute" with the firm, he added.

The union warning is in addition to the strike threat affecting the whole of the Tube network if London Underground bosses push on with 800 job cuts — mainly among station staff.

Essential upgrades of the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines are now under threat. There are fears of a repeat of the Metronet fiasco three years ago when the private sector consortium, responsible for two thirds of the network, went bust with debts of £2 billion.

Tube Lines says it needs to spend
£5.7 billion on the three lines over the next seven and a half years. LU, which has to pay the company for the work, put the "real" figure at £4 billion.

Chris Bolt, arbiter of the public-private partnership, ruled spending on the three lines should be £4.46 billion. This has prompted fears of major cut-backs at the company.
Tube Lines said it would present a "significant challenge" to deliver the line upgrades.