The disruption of another Piccadilly line strike is all too familiar and yet again it is hard working Londoners who suffer from this strike action.
Our local line, the Central line, has seen its fair share of strikes over the past few years and residents have expressed to me the negative effect these strikes can have on their lives. The London Chamber of commerce found that just one day of tube strikes costs London's economy £48 million.
That figure reflects the cost to businesses small and large across the capital but it also shows the great many working Londoners for whom a tube strike means a day of not getting paid. The fact that demands from union bosses such as a shorter working week and triple pay on Boxing Day can grind London to a halt is absurd. We deserve better.
Our latest poll shows a clear majority, six in ten, of Londoners are fed up with tube strikes but, quite rightly, want to make sure that workers are represented when it comes to issues of pay and conditions.
That’s why I am calling for tube strikes to be banned and replaced with a compulsory mediation process, which uses an independent judge to choose between the competing positions of the trade union and the employer.
With threats of further strike action in the new year, we need an alternative that doesn’t hold London hostage every time workers need their voice heard.
Roger Evans, London Assembly Member for Havering and Redbridge
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