Tube strikes cancelled as union says “significant progress” made

Image above: London Underground

RMT claims victory

Two planned strikes by London Underground workers this week have been called off, the RMT union announced.

Its members had been due to strike on Wednesday and Friday, closing the Underground over plans to reduce staff numbers by up to 600 posts to save costs.

The union said the strikes had been called off after “significant progress” in talks with London Underground at conciliation service ACAS, although there were still elements of dispute and wider negotiations continued over pensions and working agreements.

The RMT general secretary, Mick Lynch, said the threat of a strike had led to “securing this victory”, adding:

“We still remain in dispute over outstanding issues around pensions and working agreements and will continue to pursue a negotiated settlement.”

“The significant progress means that key elements have been settled although there remains wider negotiations to be had in the job, pensions and working agreements dispute,” a spokesperson for the union said.

“Good news for London”

Nick Dent, London Underground’s director of customer operations, said:

“We are pleased that the RMT has withdrawn its planned industrial action this week and that the dispute on our change proposals in stations is now resolved.

“This is good news for London and we will continue to work closely with our trade unions as we evolve London Underground to ensure we can continue to support the capital in the most effective way.”