Tube maintenance workers start 72 hour tube strike today

Maintenance workers on the tube will start a 72-hour strike at 4 pm today in a dispute over pensions and benefits equality.

Workers who do maintenance on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines voted four to one in favour of strike action be allowed to join the TfL Pension Scheme and receive the same travel concessions as those who work for London Underground.

Staff are on different conditions because some staff were part of a failed privatisation project that had to be brought back in-house. The union is arguing that all London Underground workers should be on the same conditions and are concerned that the old, private company conditions are in place  to help pave the way back into the private sector at a later date.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said “The inexplicable refusal of London Underground to agree to equalise pensions and benefits rights for our maintenance members is deeply suspect and points clearly to a secret plan to reprivatise this work in an action replay of the PPP disaster.

“We understand there are already vulture companies hovering in the wings for another shot at robbing London blind through PPP2 and reducing the network to chaos. Instead of playing these political and ideological games with our members pensions and benefits tube bosses should be getting round the table and resolving this straightforward dispute.”