London Tube and train strikes: Commuters face travel disruption Thursday July 09,2015

 

Tube and train strikes are causing travel misery, with the entire London Underground Network Shutdown and many rail services cancelled.

Tube services were halted on July 08,2015 Wednesday night after a walkout by Underground staff over pay and conditions. They will not resume until Friday morning.
The Tube dispute centres on the night services, set to begin in September 2015


London's biggest tube strike in 13 years descended into chaos on July 09,2015 Thursday morning, as commuters struggling to get into work faced severe delays and overcrowding on the few remaining public transport services running.
Ten's of thousands of people trying to get into the capital packed on to overground services, used Santander Cycles and walked to work in a bid to beat packed busses, some routes filling up even in the early hours of the morning.

On July 09,2015 Thursday morning Mike Brown, managing director of London Underground, said: "I am very sorry your journey has been disrupted. This strike is unnecessary."
The strike began at 18:30 BST on Wednesday when members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) and Unite walked out in a 24-hour action.
At 21:30, members of the train drivers' union Aslef began their own 24-hour stoppage.
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: "The strike action on London Underground is rock solid across all lines

Key points of the dispute

• The RMT, TSSA, Unite and Aslef unions say the dispute with London Underground (LU) is about workers' pay and conditions associated with the new Night Tube working
• Union members have voted 9:1 in favour of strike action. Aslef said 81% of its members responded to the ballot
• The unions have rejected a deal including a 2% average pay rise for all Tube employees plus a £2,000 one-off bonus for drivers on the five affected lines - by way of compensating them for night working
• The RMT union says the rejected driver bonus would only have affected 1,000 Tube workers out of a work force of 20,000 and the union believed this was a divide-and-rule tactic
• The unions say they want Tube workers to be fairly compensated for night working which has been linked to poor health
• LU says its pay offer is both "fair and competitive"
• LU says it is hiring 137 more train operators to work on the Night Tube, which would result in existing workers doing "a few extra nights per year within the existing working week"
• LU says no-one was being asked to work more hours than at present
• The offer includes a pay increase in 2016-17 of RPI or 1%, whichever is greater, plus a £500 launch bonus to all staff on the Night Tube lines plus a £2,000 transition bonus for drivers