Tube drivers in the RMT union will walk out at noon on Thursday 26 November, the first of eight 24-hour strikes before the end of February.
Each runs from noon to noon, taking out an afternoon journey home and the next morning’s commute. Two fall in the run-up to Christmas, on Thursday 17 and Saturday 19 December, the second running through the last weekend before Christmas. Two more come in the first week of January, on Monday 4 and Wednesday 6 January, and the last three in the second half of February, on the 17th, 23rd and 25th.
TfL has not yet said how many District line trains will run through East Putney, Putney Bridge and Southfields on strike days. When the same drivers struck in the spring, the line ran fewer trains rather than shutting. For the strikes on 2 and 4 June, TfL warned there would be no trains before 06:30 and told passengers to finish their journeys by 21:00.
The line kept running in the spring because only RMT drivers walked out. The other drivers’ union, Aslef, did not, and it is not striking this time either.
The dispute is over TfL’s plan to let drivers work a four-day week. The RMT says it would mean longer, less predictable shifts, and that drivers would lose agreements they have now whether they took the four-day week or not. Its general secretary, Eddie Dempsey, calls the plan “a wholesale attack on drivers’ working conditions” and wants it withdrawn.
TfL says the four-day week is optional, and drivers who want to stay on five days can do so without having to move depot. It has asked the RMT to put the offer to its members.
Aslef backs the plan. Its London Underground organiser, Finn Brennan, says it gives drivers 35 extra days off a year on a 34-hour week, in return for some changes to working conditions, and calls a strike to stop it “a strange choice to make”.
The RMT suspended strikes after talks in March and again in May, but struck twice in April and twice in June, so none of the eight dates is guaranteed.
Protest at East Putney
The passenger campaign Fix The District is holding a demonstration outside East Putney station on Thursday 3 December, from 5:30pm to 7pm, calling for modern signalling on the line to Wimbledon. It is a separate fight from the strike: East Putney is where TfL’s new signalling stops, and TfL decided in 2020 not to replace the older signals south of it. It will be the campaign’s third demonstration, after Southfields in October.
Getting around
If the District line is cut back, South Western Railway runs trains from Putney station to Waterloo. Buses, the Elizabeth line, Overground and DLR are not part of the strike, though they are likely to be busier. Buses through Putney include the 22, 39, 85, 93 and 265.
TfL publishes its plan for each strike day on its strikes page. This story will be updated when TfL publishes its plan for 26 November, or if any strike is called off.
