Thread: Tube strike off
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Old February 11th 14, 02:31 PM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london
Recliner[_2_] Recliner[_2_] is offline
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Default Tube strike off

From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-26130165

A second planned 48-hour strike by Tube workers has been suspended after
unions reached a deal with London Underground.

The TSSA and RMT unions have agreed to pause the industrial action, which
was due to start at 21:00 GMT, so that further talks can take place with
LU.

A 48-hour strike last week caused major disruption across the capital.

Talks to resolve the dispute, which centres on the closure of all 260 Tube
ticket offices and 960 job cuts, have been held at conciliation service
Acas.

LU said it had proposed two months of intensive talks with the unions,
starting on Wednesday.

A station-by-station review will also take place, which Tube bosses said
could result in some ticket offices remaining open.

'Unnecessary disruption'

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said the union had received proposals to
halt the implementation of the job cuts, which gave the union the
opportunity to discuss the changes "away from the pressure cooker".

"We now have a golden opportunity to look again in detail at all of the
concerns we have raised about the impact of the cuts on our members and the
services that they provide to Londoners.

"That is exactly what we have been calling for throughout this dispute."

Mr Crow added that the strike action would be back on if there was "any
further attempt to impose change from above".

A TSSA spokesman said: "We have now agreed a process where all our serious
concerns over safety and job losses will be seriously addressed through the
normal channels.

"We are obviously pleased that we have agreed this process, which will
allow us to suspend our strike immediately, and cancel it later when the
agreement reaches us in a formal document."

TfL has claimed its proposals - which do not involve compulsory
redundancies - would save £50m a year.

LU managing director Mike Brown said he welcomed the suspension.

"We have always said that we want the unions to engage fully with us, to
help shape our proposals for the future of the Tube.

"The hard work of both the LU and union negotiating teams and the progress
we have made at Acas over the last few days means we can do that without
further unnecessary disruption to Londoners."

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So it looks like some of the bigger stations will retain their ticket
offices after all?