The RMT union has announced that tube drivers will strike four times in a fortnight in an ongoing row over a colleague’s dismissal.
RMT members will walk out on 19, 27 and 29 June and 1 July. The union said the action was over Arwyn Thomas not being reinstated as a driver. He is awaiting the decision of an Employment Tribunal. The RMT says Mr Thomas was sacked “on trumped-up disciplinary charges following unproven allegations made against him by strike breakers.”
RMT General Secretary, Bob Crow, said:
“RMT has made every possible effort to get Arwyn Thomas back to work and it is the intransigence of LU management, who have dragged their heels and failed to reach agreement over the past month, that has left us with no choice to put this strike action on.
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“This is a clear cut case of victimisation and RMT calls on London Underground once again to stop the delaying tactics, and the continuing waste of hundreds of thousands of pounds that they have thrown at this case, and get Arwyn Thomas back to work.”
A Transport for London spokesman said:
“It is completely mystifying that, having agreed with London Underground that the tribunal process should take its course, the RMT leadership is now threatening strike action again.
“We committed in good faith to legal discussions ahead of Mr Thomas’ tribunal. Unfortunately, no agreement was reached.”
Earlier this week Business Secretary, Vince Cable, warned that the pressure to tighten strike legislation could “ratchet up” if strikes began to “impose serious damage to our economic and social fabric”.
