03/09/2007

Tube Chaos Looms As Strike Confirmed

Millions of Tube passengers are facing potential travel chaos as a strike looks set to go ahead later this evening.

The Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union warned that a 72-hour walkout of maintenance workers will began from 6pm on Monday.

The union has more than 2,300 members, responsible for the maintenance of tracks, trains and signals on most of the Tube network.

The RMT strike is related to the collapse of maintenance firm Metronet.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said that, as far as the union was concerned, the strike was going ahead because the union had not received the "copper-bottomed guarantees" it had been seeking.

The RMT, along with two other unions - the Transport Salaried Staffs Association and Unite - want assurances that there will be no jobs losses, forced transfers or pensions cuts as a result of the collapse of Metronet.

The TSSA is expected to announce whether they will go ahead with a planned 48-hour strike on Tuesday, later today.

A spokesperson for Transport for London said that both the administrator and Metronet had assured the unions that there would be no job cuts or transfers and that pensions would be fully protected while the company was in administration.

On Monday afternoon, it was revealed that Unite's 500 Tube staff members would not be participating in the strike.

(KMcA/SP)

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