Twenty-four hour strike on Central Line to go ahead tomorrow after talks break down
A 24-hour strike on the Central Line will go ahead tomorrow after talks between Transport for London (TfL) and the Aslef union broke down.
The entire Central line will be out of service for the whole day, as will the night tube, and there will also be little or no service on the Waterloo and City Line. The union said it called the strike because of a "breakdown of industrial relations" with TfL.
Finn Brennan, Aslef’s organiser on the Underground, said: "Despite our best efforts, we were unable to make real progress at Acas talks on the Central Line dispute today. Management still refuse to move on the key issues in this dispute.
"Drivers are continually forced into overtime and unsafe new working practices are pushed through without agreement. It would be a dereliction of our duty as trade unionists if we did not take action to stop our members being treated like this.
"Senior figures at TfL need to take a long hard look at what is going wrong with industrial relations on London Underground and start to act to fix problems if more strikes are to be avoided."
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.
Nigel Holness, Director of Network Operations for London Underground, said: “I am disappointed that ASLEF has chosen to go ahead with this needless strike action, despite positive discussions over recent days. In those discussions we have made good progress on resolving most of their issues, but have not been able to agree on the reinstatement of a train driver who was dismissed for a serious breach of our safety regulations. The safety of our customers and staff is paramount and something we will never compromise. We remain open for discussions on how to resolve this dispute, and apologise to our customers for the unnecessary disruption.
Read more: Aslef union to hold 24-hour strike on Central Line on Friday