Tube strike to go ahead on Wednesday, with delays set to continue into following morning
13 March 2023, 08:41 | Updated: 13 March 2023, 11:57
This Wednesday’s Tube strike will go ahead, union Aslef has confirmed.
The action, which will last 24 hours, will shut the Tube on Budget Day and have a knock-on impact on Thursday morning.
Only the Elizabeth line and London Overground will operate as normal. The entire Tube network will be down with ‘little or no services’.
Finn Brennan, ASLEF’s full-time organiser on the Underground, said: “The strike will go ahead as there are no talks scheduled before the action starts. Tube drivers voted by 99% in favour of the action on a turnout of 78%.
Read more: March strike dates: Who are striking and when this month?
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“This is not a strike about pay or for more time off. It is about making sure that change and “modernization” comes about by agreement.
“Central government has used the effects of the pandemic to insist that TfL targets staff pensions and working conditions. They have no problem bailing out the banks or
handing our billions of pounds in dubious contracts to their chums but they refuse to properly fund vital services like public transport in this country.
“The government wants London Underground staff to fill the hole in it has made in TfL’s budget by accepting huge cuts to their pension benefits and changes to working conditions that would destroy our work/life balance and slash their income in retirement.
“ASLEF members just aren’t prepared to accept that. That is why we are on strike this week.
“We are always prepared to discuss and negotiate but we need TfL to accept that any change is not imposed but has to come by agreement.”
Main line rail strikes will go ahead on Thursday at 14 different operating companies.
The companies, including Thameslink and Southern, are locked in a separate battle over pay.
Further RMT strikes on the national railways are also scheduled for Saturday (March 18) and on March 30 and April 1.
