Strike again?

The strike between Monday and Wednesday of this week showed how quickly parts of the capital could be thrown into chaos and yet many of the city’s commuters responded by a determination to approach their day as normal and face the inconvenience and queues.

The strikes by London Underground workers/members of the RMT Union were in response to the threat to close the Underground’s ticket officers and the resulting potential loss of 960 jobs.

There is an imminent likelihood of further strikes next week, starting on Monday evening for three days and it is hoped that talks via the mediation service Acas go some way towards avoiding further disruption. 

During this week’s strike, London commuters were forced onto their feet, bikes, buses and into their cars in order to get to work, as well as attempting to use what Tube lines were functioning. 

The Underground stated that, despite the strikes, over half the usual services remained running, partly staffed by volunteers, with 90% of Oyster cards apparently being used. An extra 266 buses, including 40 vintage ones, were laid on by Transport for London to try to cope with the pressure of commuters trying to get to work.

As with all high-profile events social media played its part with even the prime minister tweeting his disapproval of the strikes.

The reasoning behind the threatened closure of the ticket offices is that only 3% of tickets are now purchased at ticket offices, with most being bought online or via machines.  

The London Mayor, in the meantime, advised that compulsory redundancies would not be an issue in the plans and that re-allocation of jobs and voluntary redundancies will be an option. 

This news was brought to you by Morgan Pryce, a specialist tenant acquisition agent with offices in Oxford Circus and the City. Morgan Pryce specialises in search, negotiation and project management and works exclusively for tenants.