Tube Strike Threat As Union Rejects Job Cuts

The Doomsday clock that ticks down to the next Tube strike tocked a little closer to midnight yesterday, as the RMT said it would press ahead with a ballot of members should London Underground not abandon plans to cut 800 jobs, including 450 station staff. Union boss Bob Crow warned that the cuts threatened "[turning] Tube stations into a muggers' paradise" and predicted that TfL and Boris would "have a tragedy on their hands" before long. Crow may have grasped the a kernal of a point: when it took over London Overground in 2007, TfL made a big deal of improving station staff levels, in the wake of the murder of Thomas Rhys Pryce; the result was a reduction in crime levels and a improved security. The RMT has given LU a deadline of 5pm on Thursday to withdraw the proposed cuts, before holding a strike ballot.