Aslef union to hold 24-hour strike on Central Line on Friday
Hundreds of thousands of Londoners face a chaotic day on Friday after tube drivers with the Aslef union voted for industrial action.
The entire Central line will be out of service for the whole day, with drivers citing a "breakdown of industrial relations" with Transport for London (TfL).
Aslef’s organiser on the Underground Finn Brennan said: "Industrial action is always the last resort but, given the intransigence of management on a whole range of issues affecting our members, we have, reluctantly, decided this is our only course of action.
"The strike on the Central Line is the result of management’s failure to deal with the issues our reps have raised regarding service control problems affecting our members; abuse of the attendance at work procedure; breach of agreements regarding managers driving trains; abuse of the case conference procedure; harsh and unfair use of the disciplinary procedure; and imposition of new and unsafe 'flash and dash' working practices."
Nigel Holness, TfL’s director of network operations for London Underground, said: “This possible strike action will mean that the Central and Waterloo & City lines would be closed for the day. If there are any changes to service levels, we will update customers through our website, journey planner and social media channels, which all feature up-to-date travel advice. We are meeting with Aslef leadership to try to work with them to avoid this strike action and I urge them to continue these positive discussions so that Londoners don’t experience disruption this week.”
The Central Line action follows a 48-hour strike on the Piccadilly Line last week by the RMT rail union over a similar breakdown in industrial relations.