London Tube strikes: Major disruption expected throughout next week
London is set for a week of travel chaos as a strike on the Underground rail network keeps staff away from the office, at an estimated cost of £50 million ($64 million) to the city’s pubs and restaurants.
“That figure is on top of the lost £4 billion in sales over the past 18 months that hospitality businesses have already had to absorb from ongoing transport strikes,” said Kate Nicholls, CEO of the UKHospitality trade body.
Tube workers are escalating their industrial action on Sunday evening, resulting in almost no metro services until Friday morning. The RMT union is demanding more than the 5% pay rise offered by Transport for London.
TfL has also warned of some disruption to the Elizabeth Line, Overground and DLR, which overlap with the Tube network but are technically separate lines.
“Strikes are bad news for everyone, and no worker or union wants to have to make the difficult decision to take industrial action,” said a spokesperson for Sadiq Khan, the Labour party’s mayor of London. Khan blames the national Conservative government for imposing strict conditions on TfL’s funding.
Most pay disputes in the UK were settled last year, but some remain. Junior doctors have held mass walkouts, exacerbating long waiting times in the country’s state-run health service.
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Published: 07 Jan 2024, 10:42 PM IST
