The longest even strike in London Underground’s history has been announced with drivers set to strike every weekend from New Year to summer.
The RMT union announced the strike on Thursday amid its fierce dispute over the Night Tube. It confirmed that its drivers will not turn up to work on the Victoria and Central lines every weekend evening for six months until June.
From 7 January drivers will refuse to clock on from 8.30pm on Friday to 8am on Saturday, and then from 8.30pm on Saturday until 8am on Sunday.
The union has also warned that its mandate extends to other lines and will consider broadening the protest action if it does not get a response.
The union has been in dispute with Transport for London for months over staffing disagreements regarding the Night Tube. RMT has already taken eight days of strike action which coincided with the highly-anticipated reopening of the Night Tube last month.
Union chiefs say the current working arrangements impact the work-life balance of drivers because staff whose normal job is on the Tube during the day have to work four Night Tube shifts a year.
The news comes as transport chiefs were forced to close a Tube line because of driver shortages due to Covid.
The Waterloo and City line will shut from Thursday until early January to enable drivers to be switched onto the Central line to keep that running.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “If London Underground and the mayor thought this fight for progressive and family friendly working practices was going away they need to think again.
“Our members have been reballoted and have delivered a solid mandate for action and it’s the failure of LU and Sadiq Khan to address the grievances at the heart of the dispute that leaves us no option but to confirm the programme of action today.
“RMT has repeatedly put forward cost neutral proposals that would repair the damage unleashed by deleting 200 driver posts and which would dig LU out of this mess. They have ignored us and that approach will have severe consequences for Londoners in the New Year.“We remain available for further talks.”
Nick Dent, director of customer operations at London Underground, said: “We're disappointed that the RMT is continuing to push for strike action that would cause unnecessary disruption at a time when our customers need us most. We urge the RMT to join us for talks so we can work together to resolve this dispute.”
