UPDATE: THE STRIKES BELOW ARE NOW CANCELLED.
Fresh tube strikes are set to affect passengers early this October.
The RMT union has announced strike action to be taken by its members on Wednesday 4 and Friday 6 October 2023. Although it's unclear exactly how the strikes will affect services, and on which lines, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has warned: "This strike action will lead to the tube being shutdown [sic]".
The action, says the RMT, is over a long running dispute over 600 station staff cuts, and what it claims are 'detrimental working conditions' since last year, leading to fatigue among staff, and safety concerns.
Says Lynch: "Station staff have had enough of having their livelihoods threatened by job losses and attacks on their terms and conditions. [They] have a vital role to play assisting vulnerable passengers access the network safely and ensuring that the tube is a safe environment for passengers. These job cuts and attacks on conditions are going to lead to more unstaffed stations, temporary closures and rising passenger anger.
"TfL has had its budgets slashed but the savings made by these station staff cuts will be negatable and will lead to shortages that are unacceptable."
Some planned tube strikes in 2023 have been called off — so we're keeping our fingers crossed this will be the case again. Meanwhile, ASLEF union members are set to go on strike across national rail networks on 30 September and 4 October.
We'll update this article when we know more about the effects these strikes could have on the Underground network.
