Plan to class Tube service as ‘essential’ to curb strikes

London transport will be put in the same category as fire, health, education, transport and border security
Jeremy Selwyn
Pippa Crerar21 January 2016

Tube workers will find it harder to bring the capital to a standstill with strikes after ministers today announced Transport for London would be reclassified as an “essential” public service.

London transport will be put in the same category as fire, health, education, transport and border security, which all have to pass a higher threshold for strikes to go ahead.

Under the plans in the Government’s Trade Union Bill, 40 per cent of the entire workforce will have to be in favour before Tube strikes are permitted. Ballots will also require a 50 per cent turnout.

David Cameron promised to change the rules if he won the election but today his party’s mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith, who first called for tougher strike laws last year, took the credit.

It puts his Labour opponent Sadiq Khan in an awkward position as he has opposed the measures, opening himself up to Tory claims he is putting the interests of the Tube unions, which donated £140,000 to his mayoral selection campaign, first. Last year, Mr Goldsmith wrote to Business Secretary Sajid Javid last year asking for tougher strike laws to protect Londoners from unnecessary disruption.

The Tory MP said: “It must be right that TfL services are classed as essential because that’s what they are to the millions of people. Unions shouldn’t be able to call a strike on spurious grounds, with little real support.

“This is a real point of difference in this election. I back stronger strike laws but Jeremy Corbyn’s candidate, Sadiq Khan, is working hand in glove with the unions to stop them.”

Finn Brennan, Aslef’s London district organiser for the Tube, said the threshold proposals would be “irrelevant” for his union as the ballot for the planned strikes produced a 97 per cent yes vote, on a turn-out of 83 per cent.

He said: “Goldsmith is just politically posturing. If he wants to make things better he should think of ways of improving relations with the unions.”

Analysis from Mr Goldsmith’s campaign showed half of the past 10 Tube strikes for which data is available would not have met the higher threshold.

Labour believes the move is timed to disrupt negotiations so the strikes go ahead, forcing Mr Khan to either condemn his union backers or look like he is cosying up to them. He said: “This is deliberately timed to destabilise talks just as both sides say real progress is being made. If ever Londoners needed evidence that the Tories treat them with utter disdain then this is it.”

A Standard poll in 2014 found 56 per cent of Londoners were in favour of banning Tube strikes unless half of eligible union members voted in favour.

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