A planned tube strike that would have caused chaos on first day of the Jubilee bank holiday weekend has been suspended.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union had been due to walk out at Euston and Green Park tube stations in London on Friday, June 3.
Workers at the stations had claimed they faced bullying and intimidation from a single manager for years, leading to a breakdown of industrial relation, the union says.
However, the RMT has no said that strike will no longer take place on that date, after ‘significant’ progress with London Underground (LUL).
It said that an agreement has been reached with tube bosses to have a review into the bullying issue that would involve the union.
As a result it has suspended the strike, but the RMT says if there are no immediate improvements and a ‘just settlement’ is not reached it will call for action on a different day.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘London Underground (LUL) has finally seen sense to take the union’s arguments seriously regarding workplace bullying and we will now suspend to the strike on June 3 to hopefully reach a resolution quickly.’
News that workers were planning on striking on the first day of the Jubilee bank holiday weekend was met with fury earlier this month.
Downing Street slammed the strikes, with the Prime Minister’s official spokesman telling reporters: ‘I don’t think we want to see any disruption to London’s transport system at such a moment when people are trying to come together to honour this Jubilee year.’
A spokesman for Labour leader Keir Starmer said: ‘We never want to see industrial action that’s going to disrupt the public, particularly on an occasion like the Platinum Jubilee weekend where obviously we want the focus to be on celebrating the great service of Her Majesty to this country.’
Sir Keir said he hopes the issues can be resolved, adding: ‘We want to make sure that there isn’t disruption for the public.
‘It’s for the parties themselves to get together and discuss the issues but we would hope that they could resolve the issues before the Jubilee weekend.’
Transport for London (TfL) insisted there would be no disruption and that despite the strike it would keep the two stations open due to their strategic importance for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
However, despite news the strike next Friday has been called off, a much larger day of action called by the RMT is still set to go ahead less than a week later.
Around 4,000 tube staff are set to walk out on Monday, June 6, in a dispute over job losses.
The RMT has accused TfL of trying to ‘bulldoze through 600 job losses’, with Mr Lynch saying its members are ‘not prepared to accept that’.
‘Station staff play a crucial role in serving the travelling public and were heroes during the 7/7 terrorist attacks,’ he said.
‘Instead of seeking to cut jobs, TfL and Mayor Sadiq Khan need to put further pressure on the government to secure increased funding for the network so we can have a properly staffed modern 21st century tube.’
Mr Lynch also refused to rule out walk outs lasting four days a time when RMT members working for Network Rail and 15 train operators go on strike this summer.
He said strikes will not be ‘excessive’ to start with as industrial action takes place during a dispute over pay and jobs.
The union legally has to give two weeks’ notice for industrial action, meaning walkouts could begin from mid-June.
The dispute is over pay and claims that Network Rail, which is in charge of infrastructure, plans to cut up to 2,500 jobs.
There are concerns there could be blackouts due to the impact on freight services by these strikes.
Industry insiders point to Drax power station in North Yorkshire, which can only stockpile supplies sufficient for two or three days and services millions of homes. Tesco and Puma Energy, which supplies garage forecourts, have also raised concerns about supply lines.