Aslef held off making any announcement on strikes until today’s resumed talks, and sources said it had been decided the union would not be taking part in the new stoppages.
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The union boss also said that members were operating on a “work to rule” regime today, leading to delays on the District Line. London Underground (LU) said there were minor delays because of a shortage of available trains.
Members of the RMT, Unite and the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association intend to walk out for 24 hours from the evenings of 25 and 27 August, threatening to disrupt services for days in the run-up to the August bank holiday weekend.
Talks were held on Wednesday in a bid to break the deadlocked row, and a further meeting between Aslef and London Underground is expected later this week.
However, the militants seem to have won a victory after it emerged today that the introduction of the “night tube” is likely to be delayed from its scheduled start date of September 12.
The unions say they are not concerned about pay but about “work-life balance” calling LU’s projected working arrangements “rosters from hell”. (Though the RMT is not helping its cause by reportedly asking for more money in recent talks.).
But Mick Cash of the RMT said: ‘These figures are pure scaremongering and have been cobbled together on the back of a fag packet before any agreement has even been reached on pay and reward for the next two years’.
Night Tube services, which will see trains run around the clock on Friday and Saturday nights, are set to launch on September 12 on the Jubilee and Victoria lines as well as on most of the Central, Northern and Piccadilly lines.
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“The solution to this dispute is serious negotiations around the work/life balance issues that have led to the action, not a cavalier attitude to safety to try and cover up the impact”.
