Tube bosses urge union chiefs to come back to talks

Crush: Tube passengers cram on to one of the trains running during the strike
12 April 2012

London Underground urged union leaders today to resume peace talks as they fight to avoid another strike that could cripple the capital's transport network.

Tube chiefs wrote to the Rail Maritime and Transport union and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, calling on them to return to negotiations to break the deadlocked dispute over job cuts ahead of a strike planned in less than two weeks.

The two sides spent six hours at the conciliation service Acas yesterday but the meeting ended without agreement, with union leaders warning that a 24-hour walkout was likely to go ahead from October 3. Further stoppages are planned for November.

The unions staged a 24-hour strike on September 6 and 7 in protest against plans to cut 800 jobs, which forced commuters to get to work by buses, bicycles and taxis.

Mayor Boris Johnson accused RMT leader Bob Crow of playing "political games" as many roads across London were gridlocked by the increased number of buses, cabs and cars.

Unions insisted support for the strike had been "rock solid", although Transport for London said as many as 40 per cent of trains ran.

Howard Collins, LU's chief operating officer, said the unions continued to demand that the company withdraws its staffing plans before talks can progress.

But he was adamant that the cuts were necessary to modernise the Tube.

"With some ticket offices now selling fewer than 10 tickets per hour London Underground needs to change, and we cannot agree to this demand," he said.

"Despite their claims that this dispute is about safety, the unions' leaderships have not even tried to make any case to us that these proposals impact upon safety standards.

"We have assured the unions' leaderships that our plans have no impact on safety standards and have given a cast-iron guarantee that these plans involve no compulsory redundancies or loss of earnings. We have assured them again that every station that has a ticket office now will have one in future, and all stations will be staffed at all times.

"We remain ready and willing to discuss any aspect of our proposals, including any specific safety concerns, and we hope the leaderships of the TSSA and RMT will return to talks at Acas tomorrow, call off this pointless industrial action and stop threatening Londoners with disruption."

It seemed unlikely that the unions will attend any talks tomorrow, although officials are in contact with Acas.

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