By Tsvetelina Stancheva
Possible cuts in TfL’s pension scheme have provoked major tube strikes. All tube lines are suspended for 24 hours today (1st of March) and on Thursday (3rd of March) throughout London, after TfL workers walked out to show their frustration about their future.
Some feel that cutting down pensions is unfair to the TfL staff, who were praised as heroes for carrying London through the Covid-19 pandemic for two whole years, risking their lives in the face of a deadly virus. They believe that now they have no other choice but to protest tо protect their livelihoods.
“We don’t want anything we haven’t been promised already. We are protesting for what is ours. I don’t get why would they want to cut essential workers’ pensions when they are the people you rely on the most when something like Covid happens,” said David, 52, a TfL worker from central London who didn’t want to give his surname for fear of reprisals.
In December 2021, RMT (Rail, Maritime, and Transport), held a ballot and it was overwhelmingly in favour of striking. Out of the 51.7 per cent of the workers who voted, only 307 voted no, while 4,900 voted yes.
“I totally get the strikes. Those people deserve to receive what they were promised. I am an ex-TfL worker and let me tell you, if back in the day they tried to pull something like this, we were going to do the same thing and try to protect our money. We worked hard for it,” said James Fisher, ex-TfL worker from Marylebone.
But some commuters were not amused. “Oh Here we go! Tube drivers (on (£60,000 a year, earning more than doctors, nurses, firefighters, teachers- useful people) on strike!!!! They pay 5% ie £3,000 towards a final pension, towards which TFL add £18,000!!!!!!!!!!!!! And they’re complaining??” @krysiuniaw5 wrote on Twitter.
“2 years of a global pandemic. A fortnight of chaos leading up to a Russian invasion of Ukraine. TFL: this seems like an EXCELLENT window of opportunity to arrange a tube strike,” wrote @charlvtte.
Even though TfL emphasised that workers will not lose their jobs if they strike, this was not a good reason enough to stop their staff from protesting the cuts.
The RMT trade union general secretary, Mick Lynch, told the Evening Standard: “Our members will be taking strike action because a financial crisis at London Underground has been deliberately engineered by the Government to drive cuts’ agenda which would savage jobs, services, safety and threaten their working conditions and pensions.
“The politicians need to wake up to the fact that transport staff will not pay the price for this cynically engineered crisis,” he added.
According to the Government, the Mayor of London should present a report on how to make the pension scheme “financially sustainable” by the end of this month. This may lead to more strikes and worsen the situation.
TfL chief operating officer Andy Lord told the Evening Standard that there is big frustration for everyone, because RMT decided to act before even anything is tabled on pensions.
“I really want the RMT to talk with us and work with us. I encourage them to consider calling off Thursday’s strike. All it’s doing is making our financial position worse,” he said.
There is still no official confirmation if the strike on Thursday is still going to happen. For more information and live updates on the topic please visit tfl.gov.uk
Leave a Reply