‘We anticipate the London Underground strike will be solid as it was last time’, rail union RMT said yesterday.
A RMT spokesman told News Line: ‘Claims that our members had kept stations open on New Year’s Eve were rubbish.
‘LUL management mobilised huge resources taking on non-RMT people at increased rates of pay – managers and office workers – to man stations, leading to many health and safety breaches.’
Today’s Tube strike went ahead last night after an internal row among Tube bosses sank any chances of a peace deal.
An RMT statement on Sunday said: ‘A second 24-hour strike by 4,000 RMT Tube station staff will go ahead after an internal row in the London Underground board scuppered a peace formula negotiated during two hours of emergency talks hosted last night by the Trades Union Congress.
‘Under the draft agreement, strike action, which begins tonight at 18:30, would have been suspended pending urgent talks next week, with a view to reporting back to a further TUC-hosted session on January 17.’
RMT general secretary Bob Crow commented: ‘After an initiative by RMT and TUC general secretary Brendan Barber, we believed we had reached a tentative agreement to enter into talks that would have allowed us to suspend tonight’s and Monday’s action.
‘It is bitterly disappointing that that agreement has fallen foul of an internal row between the industrial relations and operational sides of LUL and an attempt by the company to change the wording we had agreed around the table.
‘Instead of taking sides the mayor should now take the necessary steps to bring all sides back to the table to negotiate sensibly.
‘If not we face the prospect of an escalation of the dispute with a ballot of all RMT Tube members for further action from the end of January that could lead to complete closure of the network, thanks to the blatant safety breaches by LUL in their attempt to undermine our New Year’s Eve strike.
‘The sad events at Euston station on New Year’s Eve – one of the stations for which staffing levels are not agreed – in which there were three stabbings, underline the fact that the safety issues at the heart of this dispute remain to be resolved.’
