The RMT union has confirmed that it is reballotting its 10,000 members working on the London Underground for strike action in a dispute over jobs and pensions.
The union already has a strike mandate in the dispute from its members, but strike mandates have an expiry date, so the RMT is running a ballot of its members to seek authority to continue the dispute.
The current mandate expires in June, and the ballot decision to renew or cancel it should be known on 23rd May.
Speaking as the re-ballot opens, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Our members have taken several days of strike action over this last year and remain as determined as ever to get a just settlement on jobs, pensions and their working conditions.”
“The Mayor is under pressure from central government, but he must join us in resisting them and refuse to allow ideologically motivated financial constraints to be used as an excuse to attack tube workers.”
The union says that Transport for London wants to cut 600 jobs from station staff and that pension plans would see workers lose 30% of their pensions.
However, although there will be 600 fewer staff working in the stations under current plans, that would come from natural wastage with vacancies not being filled and no redundancies are expected to be needed.
There’s also no decision yet on what, if any changes would be made to the pensions. The government mandated review into the pension scheme is still ongoing.
TfL’s Chief Operating Officer Glynn Barton said in a statement: “We have been notified that the RMT union will be re-balloting their members over the renewal of their mandate for industrial action over jobs, pensions and conditions.”
“This is despite the fact that no proposals have been tabled on pensions following a Government mandated review into the TfL pension scheme. If any proposal is made in the future, this would require appropriate consultation and extensive further work.”
