Tuesday and Thursday strikes confirmed after last‑ditch talks fail
Tube drivers will walk out on Tuesday and Thursday in a dispute over a voluntary four‑day working week, after five hours of talks at the conciliation service Acas failed to produce a breakthrough. The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union confirmed that industrial action will go ahead from 00:01 to 23:59 on both days, affecting about half of all London Underground drivers. Hopes of a resolution had risen after previous strike dates were suspended in May, but Monday’s negotiations – which the RMT said amounted to a “refusal to engage meaningfully” by Transport for London (TfL) – ended without agreement.
Widespread disruption expected across the network
Passengers are being warned of severe disruption, with no service at all on the Circle and Piccadilly lines. The Metropolitan line will also see no trains between Baker Street and Aldgate, and the Central line will be cut between White City and Liverpool Street. On the remaining tube lines, services will start later than usual – with very little running before 06:30 – and begin to wind down well before the normal close. TfL advised travellers to complete journeys by 21:00 on both strike days, and warned that disruption will spill into the following mornings as the network takes time to resume normal operations.
Other TfL‑run services, including the Elizabeth line, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and trams, will run to their normal timetables but are expected to be significantly busier. Buses will operate as usual, though they are likely to be slowed by additional traffic and are likely to be very crowded. Business groups have already voiced alarm. Ed Richardson, programme director for transport at BusinessLDN, said: “For many businesses that rely on people visiting in person, the impact of these strikes will have already been felt through cancelled bookings and people changing their plans. We urge both sides to reach a sustainable agreement to put an end to the damaging uncertainty hanging over businesses and London’s economy.”
A separate, unrelated dispute involving bus drivers in East London will also continue this week, affecting specific routes. TfL hopes to run about half of all tube services on Tuesday and Thursday, partly because the majority of drivers represented by the Aslef union have welcomed the four‑day‑week proposals and will not be striking. Aslef, which represents a slight majority of tube drivers, has voted in favour of the new rosters, which it says deliver 34‑hour weeks with an extra day off and reduced hours. This split between the two unions has limited the scale of the RMT’s walkouts, but the RMT’s action remains enough to hollow out large parts of the network.
RMT raises safety fears over compressed hours and shift flexibility
At the heart of the dispute is a fundamental disagreement over what a four‑day week for tube drivers would actually look like. TfL’s proposal is for a completely voluntary arrangement under which drivers would work 35 hours across four days instead of the current 36 hours over five days. Drivers who do not wish to switch can stay on a five‑day pattern, a point TfL’s chief operating officer, Claire Mann, stressed again on Monday. “Our proposals are, and have always been, clear. The completely voluntary four‑day week has been designed to improve work‑life balance,” she said.
The RMT, however, argues that the plan effectively compresses five days of work into four, with the potential for shifts as long as 10 hours. The union has cited “deeply held concerns around fatigue, reduced flexibility, shift lengths and the impact these proposals could have in a safety‑critical role like tube driving”. In a statement after the Acas talks, an RMT spokesperson said: “Despite our best efforts, TfL have failed to provide assurances on our members’ concerns. We remain available for meaningful talks, but strike action tomorrow will now go ahead.” RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey has previously described the current proposal as a “fake” four‑day week, insisting that a genuine reduction would require a 32‑hour week with no loss of pay. TfL has calculated that moving to a 32‑hour week for all drivers would cost tens of millions of pounds annually, a figure it says is unaffordable.
The RMT also complains that TfL has “U‑turned” on earlier positions, after the union cancelled strike dates in May and June when it believed there was room for further negotiation. The union claims that under the TfL plan drivers could be given as little as 24 hours’ notice of shift patterns, a level of unpredictability it says is unacceptable for a safety‑critical role. Aslef’s acceptance of the 34‑hour version of the four‑day week has deepened the RMT’s frustration, with some drivers feeling that the RMT is being painted as intransigent when its objections are about safety and working conditions, not about the principle of a shorter week. Tube drivers currently earn around £80,000 a year, and the RMT maintains that any new pattern must genuinely reduce the working week rather than merely rejig the hours.
TfL, for its part, insists the offer is generous and designed to improve work‑life balance, and that the RMT is refusing to take “yes” for an answer. “It is bitterly disappointing that despite five hours of meetings with the RMT at Acas and repeated assurances that the four‑day working week proposals will remain voluntary, RMT has chosen to continue with its disruptive strike action,” a TfL spokesperson said. The strikes are the latest in a long line of industrial disputes on the London Underground, which has seen multiple rounds of walkouts since 2023 over pay, pensions, jobs and working conditions. No further strike dates have been formally announced beyond Thursday, but the RMT has said it remains open to talks – a position that has done little to reassure businesses already counting the cost of lost commuter footfall.
