10,000 Tube staff to strike from Sept 6 costing London economy '£48m a day'

Thousands of London Underground workers are to stage a series of strikes from next month in a row over jobs, it was announced today.

Members of the RMT and TSSA will walk out for 24 hours from 5pm on September 6.

The unions said up to 10,000 workers will be involved in the action and other dates in October and November.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "London Underground must understand that the cuts they want to impose are unacceptable to our members and will undermine safety and service for the travelling public."

The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimated each strike will cost the capital's economy £48 million.

LCCI chief executive Colin Stanbridge said: "If these strikes go ahead it will cause massive disruption to London's firms and damage our city's reputation as a reliable place to do business.

"Each day the Underground is shut it will cost the London economy £48 million and hamper the recovery of all sorts of companies still hung-over from a crippling worldwide recession.

"The RMT need to accept that everyone in the private and public sectors are having to do more with less nowadays and understand that holding millions of commuters to ransom is an unacceptable response to not having its demands met."

Members of the RMT and TSSA unions voted in favour of a campaign of industrial action over plans to cut 800 jobs among station staff.

The strikes will cause huge disruption for hundreds of thousands of Londoners returning to work after their summer holidays. An overtime ban will also trigger delays.

Union leaders say strikes will take place each month until Mayor Boris Johnson withdraws a plan to cut staff.

Howard Collins, LU's chief operating officer, said: "It is simply not possible to go on with a situation where some ticket offices sell fewer than 10 tickets an hour.

"It is clear that passengers can be better served by getting staff out from behind the windows of under-used ticket offices."