Piccadilly Line drivers to strike tomorrow after talks with TfL crumble
A three-day strike on the Piccadilly Line will go ahead tomorrow after talks between union workers and Transport for London (TfL) broke down this morning.
The RMT rail union confirmed the strike by drivers will start tomorrow lunchtime through until Saturday after talks at conciliation service Acas held yesterday and into today failed.
The RMT said TfL bosses has "scuppered" the talks by "refusing to bring any new proposals or make any serious progress on the core issues at the heart of the dispute".
The dispute is over what the RMT calls safety and operations improvements such as sick leave.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "RMT is angry, frustrated and disgusted that tube bosses have wrecked the planned ACAS talks today by denying reality and refusing point blank to make serious progress on the core issues that have reduced industrial relations on the Piccadilly Line to a powder keg.
"The attitude of tube managers on the Piccadilly Line has been deliberately provocative and obstructive and it is that stance, including the back-tracking on operational, staffing and safety improvements agreed after previous rounds of action on the line, that led to the current dispute in the first place.
"The attempt by Tube bosses to turn today's talks into a talking shop has deliberately slammed the door on any possible progress and as a result the action starting tomorrow goes ahead exactly as planned."
Nigel Holness, TfL’s director of network operations for London Underground, said: “The RMT has unilaterally ended discussions at Acas and informed us that their strike on the Piccadilly Line will go ahead from tomorrow. They have made no attempt to engage with us to try and resolve this dispute. We continue to uphold all our commitments following discussions with the RMT earlier in the year and their claims that no progress has been made are totally untrue. We are hugely disappointed that customers will suffer three days of disruption for no good reason.”