Tube workers announce more strikes next month

London Underground workers will stage two strikes next month in a dispute over safety.

Members of Aslef union on the Bakerloo line will walk out on February 4 and 11 after voting in favour of industrial action.

The union is in dispute over a plan it says would allow trains to go into sidings and depots without a check to ensure that passengers have left the train.

Aslef dubbed the proposal ‘flash and dash’, warning that passengers would have to depend on hearing unreliable PA announcements on 50-year-old trains to avoid being taken into depots and sidings.

Currently, trains are physically checked to make sure they are empty and it is safe for the driver to proceed, but the union said management want to remove this safety check as part of a cost-cutting plan.

Finn Brennan, Aslef’s organiser on the Underground, said: ‘This puts both passengers and staff at risk.

‘Previous experience had shown that removing physical checks means that thousands of passengers are unwittingly taken into sidings or depots.

‘We understand the pressure that London Underground is under to cut costs, but this cannot be at the expense of the safety of passengers and staff.’

Aslef members will now refuse to take trains into sidings or depots without safety checks and will strike on the first two Saturdays in February.

Workers up and down the UK are walking out this month as energy bills rise and the cost of living crisis tightens.

The likes of nurses, doctors, taxi drivers, teachers have all taken strike action.

Yesterday, ambulance drivers also announced fresh dates for planned industrial action.

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