Workers on the London Underground are staging a 24-hour walkout in a continued row over jobs and pensions.
Members of the RMT and Unite unions are hanging in the present day, together with a few of their Overground colleagues, closing massive elements of the Tube community for the day.
Most buses throughout west and southwest London will even not run because of industrial motion.
Read extra: Who is happening strike in August and for a way lengthy?
The motion is sandwiched between RMT strikes on Network Rail on Thursday and Saturday, because the impasse between unions and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps deepens.
Transport employees have been asking for a pay improve in step with inflation, in addition to safety for jobs amid proposed cuts by the federal government.
RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch mentioned: “Tube bosses are having secret negotiations with the federal government about slashing jobs and undermining working situations and pensions, all within the title of eradicating subsidies.
“This government-led assault on staff will be disastrous, as no other comparable urban transport system in the world operates without financial support from central government to ensure good and reliable services.
“The authorities must cease making an attempt to get companies on a budget by slashing jobs and wages, and spend money on what ought to be a world-class transport community.”
Passengers are being urged to not journey in the present day.
A Department for Transport spokesperson mentioned: “It’s clear strikes are not the powerful tool they once were and union chiefs are no longer able to bring the country to a standstill as, unlike them, the world has changed and people simply work from home.
“All these strikes are doing is hurting these individuals the unions declare to characterize, a lot of whom will once more be out of pocket and compelled to overlook a day’s work.
“We urge union bosses to do the right thing by their members and let them have their say on Network Rail’s very fair deal, which will deliver the reforms our rail system urgently needs. It’s time to get off the picket lines and back around the negotiating table – the future of our railway depends on it.”
Passengers utilizing nationwide rail companies in the present day will likely be left feeling the hangover of Thursday’s strikes, with the community having to catch as much as get trains the place they have to be earlier than resuming journeys.
Only one-in-five trains ran on Thursday, with many areas having no companies in any respect operating between them, with the identical once more set to occur on Saturday.
Andy Lord, TfL’s chief working officer, mentioned: “I would like to apologise to our customers for the strike action being carried out by RMT and Unite, which will have a significant impact on the city’s transport network.
“I perceive how irritating these strikes are, and I’d prefer to remind the RMT and Unite that it is not too late to work with us, Arriva Rail London and RATP (which runs the London buses affected by the strike) to discover a decision and keep away from the large disruption this motion will trigger to individuals’s journeys and to the economic system.”
A spokesperson for the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Discussions on TfL funding are ongoing with the federal government, however TfL has been clear that no one has or will lose their jobs due to the proposals beforehand set out, and that every one adjustments are all the time topic to full session with employees and commerce unions.
“Sadiq has also been clear that the government should not use TfL employee terms and conditions as a bargaining tool in funding negotiations.”
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps will likely be speaking to Sky News this morning at round 7am.
Source: information.sky.com”