Tube workers strike over safety equipment

Tube drivers on the Victoria line are staging a 24-hour strike in a row over door safety equipment. About 180 drivers on the Victoria Line stopped working from 9pm on Tuesday.

Submitted by Ed on April 22, 2009

The RMT union claims trains need safety features to prevent doors from opening on the wrong side.

The industrial action is being taken by workers from the Seven Sisters depot in north London. The workers said the correct door-side enabling equipment was installed on all other lines on the London Underground.

General secretary Bob Crow said he was also determined to stop "a culture of bullying and harassment" of RMT members on the Victoria Line.

A Transport for London spokesman described the strike as "completely unnecessary".

"There are procedures in place to deal with these kinds of issues and we ask RMT to return to the negotiating table," he added.

Comments

Steven.

14 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on April 27, 2009

NB the strike was successful in completely shutting down the Victoria line, as drivers from Aslef refused to cross picket lines.

spitzenprodukte

14 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by spitzenprodukte on April 27, 2009

More problems with the doors on the Victoria this morning, the driver was running back and forth for 5 minutes whilst the train was stuck in Finsbury Park, though it wasn't specifically due to the enabling equipment as far as I could tell. Not-so-helpful tuts from fellow passengers.
Hopefully this will be sorted soon because it's frequently overcrowded, especially 8-10am and 5-7pm, with that number of passengers pushing against the closed side doors it's an accident waiting to happen.
Also does anyone know why some of the doors only half open on the Victoria in Kings Cross? Bloody annoying.
Good luck to RMT and Aslef on this one.