Tube drivers strike for staff and passenger safety

The employer wants to impose a package of reforms that would see the average length of the working day increase from 7h42m to 8h45m, with the maximum shift length, currently 8h30m, increasing to 9h30m. It would also see the maximum time we can drive without a break go up from 5h15m to 5h45m. The changes will also give the employer more flexibility over changingshift start times and locations. This could lead to earlier starts, from 03:45am, and later finishes, up to 02:30am. The scheme will also allow London Underground to reduce overall driver headcount, meaning the deletion of jobs.

For the employer, the benefits are clear. As they have put it in the press, “These changes will help us to improve reliability, improve our ability to flexibly deploy our drivers and enable us to offer a modern and efficient service while creating no additional cost.”

For workers, longer shifts, earlier starts, later finishes, and worse work/life balance will lead to increased fatigue. It’s not in our passengers’ interests to travel on trains driven by someone who found out 24 hours previously that their shift now started at 03:30, at a depot on the other side of London, and might have to drive for nearly six hours without a break.

The job of a Tube driver requires intense mental concentration and alertness. As the sole member of staff on board our trains, we are responsible for the safety of hundreds of people. Lengthening our shift lengths and driving time is a safety risk.

LUL first proposed a version of these reforms in 2022, as part of a scheme called “Trains Modernisation”. At that time, both unions representing drivers, RMT and Aslef, resisted, and the scheme was withdrawn. The employer tweaked the proposals, and threw in a sweetener by agreeing that drivers could move onto a four-day-week model as part of the reforms. Aslef has enthusiastically accepted the company’s terms; RMT, whilst supporting a move to a four-day week in principle, has continued to resist. We want a shorter working week, but not a longer working day.

The employer argues that the additional day off per week will offset any issues arising from increased driving time and the lengthening of the working day. Our view is that reducing the working week should mean quality time away from work, that we’re able to spend with friends and family. If the extra rest day is merely a recovery day following longer shifts, it benefits the employer more than it benefits us.

Facilitating a reduced working week without trashing existing terms and conditions requires an increase in jobs. LUL doesn’t want to increase the staffing level, and has insisted any changes must be “cost neutral” — i.e., any cost to the employer offset by productivity savings elsewhere.

A meaningful reduction in the working week for drivers would benefit London by improving fatigue and work/life balance, and by creating more well-paid, unionised jobs.”

Please lend the RMT drivers your solidarity and visit your local picket line.

Next strikes are on 19-20 and 21-22 May.