RMT union members will strike from 9pm on Tuesday after latest negotiations in row over ticket office closures failed

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

London Underground workers are to stage a 48-hour strike next week in the long-running dispute over tube ticket office closures.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) have been instructed not to accept any shifts between 9pm on 14 October and 8.59pm on 16 October.

The walkout threatens travel disruption in the capital and coincides with strikes by council workers and civil servants across the country in separate disputes over pay, jobs and cuts.

The latest phase of action in RMT’s Every Job Matters campaign follows talks with London Underground. The union said that although some limited progress had been made its executive had taken the view it was not enough after months of negotiations and that the only option was to move back into a further round of strikes.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “RMT negotiators have made every effort in the long-running talks to resolve a range of issues that impact on our members’ jobs, their pay and working conditions and the safety of the services that they provide to the travelling public.

“The cuts, currently being bulldozed through, would de-staff whole areas of the tube system at a time of surging passenger demand and would make evacuation and other basic safety procedures a physical impossibility.

“The axing of ticket offices and station staffing grades would render the tube a no-go zone for many people with disabilities and for women travelling alone. The cuts ignore the realities of life that we saw when services broke down last week and the recent surveys, which point to an increase in violence and sexual assaults.

“RMT will not stand back and allow government-driven austerity cuts to hollow out the tube system and leave it as a dangerous shell. We are also fully aware that the current cuts are just part of a multibillion-pound attack that will include such lethal ideas as driverless operation.

“The strike action next week is designed to force the mayor to instruct his senior officials to back away from this toxic cuts package and engage in serious and meaningful negotiations.”

Unions have been campaigning against plans to close ticket offices since they were unveiled last year.

London Underground says few tickets are bought at offices and that staff would be better used by being stationed on concourses.