EPPING FOREST: Threat of Tube strike increases (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

EPPING FOREST: Threat of Tube strike increases

5:01pm Friday 30th July 2010 in

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STRIKE action on the London Underground seems increasingly likely, as another union has announced that it will ballot its members.

The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) said its 1,000 members would vote on plans for strike action in protest at Mayor of London Boris Johnson's plans to slash opening hours at 250 Tube ticket offices and axe 800 jobs.

If the strike goes ahead, action will begin in early September and be coordinated with the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers' union (RMT).

Figures released by the RMT in May claimed that Tube stations across Epping Forest were repeatedly being left unmanned late at night, with Roding Valley station left unstaffed 54 times in a 12-month period.

London Underground has told staff and customers that stations with a ticket office will continue to have one and all stations will be staffed at all times, despite the planned cuts.

But TSSA leader Gerry Doherty said that the cuts would hit the end of the Central and Metropolitan lines the hardest.

He added: “The irony of all this for Boris is he is having to hit the Tory heartlands the hardest to make cuts that are being imposed on him by George Osborne at the Treasury.

"He was actually elected promising to scrap ticket office cuts planned by (former mayor Ken Livingstone) and, to be fair, he did just that.

“Now he is planning to go much further than Ken and this will cost him voters where he most needs them, in the Tory shires."

The TSSA ballot will end on Wednesday, August 18.