Only days after proposals were put before Parliament to ban industrial action by transport and emergency workers unless 50% of union members back it, London Underground staff have agreed to strike in support of two sacked colleagues.
Tube workers voted by two to one in a ballot undertaken by the RMT union to walk out, after London Underground refused to reinstate two drivers, Eamon Lynch and Arwyn Thomas who, it claimed, were dismissed over alleged safety breaches.
The RMT attested, on the other hand, that the men were sacked as a result of their union activities and its executive plans to set a date for industrial action next week.
Bob Crow, the union’s general secretary, said: "This massive vote for action by tube drivers shows that they are well aware of the consequences of allowing our activists and safety reps to be picked off, while we hear daily reports of breakdowns and failures on the network as a direct result of the very cuts that our members have been fighting."
The ‘attack’ on Lynch and Thomas was the "clearest cut case of victimisation on the grounds of trade union activities that you will ever see", which meant it was "no wonder that the Employment Tribunal was swift to see through the management lies and grant both these members Interim Relief", he added.
But a spokeswoman for Transport for London, dismissed as "absolute nonsense" the allegations that the men were sacked because of their union activities, adding it was "disgraceful" that the RMT leadership had balloted for strike action when both cases were still going through the employment tribunal process.
"The threat of strike action will never resolve issues such as this. The RMT leadership only achieved a very weak mandate for strike action in defence of these drivers when their Bakerloo and Northern line colleagues were balloted before Christmas," she said.
The move was also condemned by Dominic Raab, Tory MP for Esher and Walton, who earlier this week introduced a 10-minute rule Bill, which would require strike action to be backed by more than 50% of all trade union members to make it legal. Currently only a majority of those responding to a ballot have to vote in favour of a walk-out and no minimum turnout is required.
Raab told the Daily Telegraph: "It beggars belief that Bob Crow has a licence to inflict chaos, with the votes of less than 400 people – a mere 29% of RMT members. The last tube strike cost the capital around £50m each day, disrupting more than a million commuters. We need reform to prevent militant union bosses holding the hard-working majority to ransom."
The RMT last walked out in late November in a dispute over staffing levels at ticket offices and plans to introduce another ballot of members working for Heathrow Express, after it rejected an "unsatisfactory" pay offer.
