4:30pm Thursday 2nd September 2010
By Alex Hayes
TALKS to try to prevent a walkout of 10,000 tube workers on Monday have broken down without agreement.
Conciliation agency ACAS had been brought in to try to reach an agreement between London Underground and two unions on proposed shortening of ticket office hours.
Action will start at 5pm on Monday with maintenance workers walking out for 24-hours, with drivers who are members of the RMT and TSSA set to follow suit at 9pm.
The action is expected to cause most problems on Tuesday, with other walkouts planned every month over fears 800 jobs will be shed.
An indefinite ban on overtime on workers also comes into affect at midnight on Monday.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “LU management knew very well that meaningful talks could not proceed while the threat of cuts to safety and safe staffing levels hung over our members heads.
“Their failure to remove that threat sabotaged any prospect of making progress.
“Not only are ticket offices and ticket staff jobs threatened but hundreds of other station staff posts are also on the line. It was the presence of those very staff that averted potential disaster in recent incidents involving fires at Euston and Oxford Circus.”
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