The RMT union has confirmed plans for a 48-hour strike on the London Underground over job cuts and ticket office closures.
The walkout by thousands of station staff, starting at 9pm on Saturday, would severely impact tube services on Sunday and Monday. A threatened series of strikes over the introduction of the night tube, which were to be joined by drivers and other unions, has been called off, but the RMT is set to go ahead in this parallel dispute.
The union has called seven days of action, including an overtime ban. However, talks are expected later in the week between the RMT and Transport for London, which may yet avert the strike.
The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, attacked his putative Labour successor, Sadiq Khan, for failing to denounce the RMT. Johnson branded the strike “insane”, adding that ticket offices would not be re-opened.
He said: “The strike promises to be nothing more than a pointless inconvenience … Why won’t [Khan] just say unequivocally, loud and clear, that the RMT leadership is wrong to put its members through this madness – not to mention the travelling public?”
The RMT has said the job losses are being driven by budget cuts, and safety on the tube will be jeopardised by the move.
