London Trams strikes announced

Services on London Trams – which were already set to be disrupted owing to engineering works from the end of this month – are set to be further after it was announced that members from Unite the Union who maintain the trams and infrastructure will be going on strike. The first of these strikes will commence on Sunday 24^th March and last until the early hours of Thursday 28^th March, which leads directly into the planning engineering works which get underway on Friday 29^th March.

The reason for the calling of the strike relates to pay but is not as simple as demands for a percentage pay increase. Engineers who work for London Trams are said to be angry that staff who perform similar roles on London Underground (who require the same qualifications) earn up to £10,000 extra per year.

Unite allege that this disparity is caused staffing shortages on the trams as worked leave as soon as a higher paid job becomes available on the London Underground.

Negotiations have said to have been taking place for over five years to sort out the situation of the engineer contracts – they are on office worker contracts although fulfill technical roles. Unite say that this has negatively impacted their pay and also prevented the workers from collectively negotiating pay as a distinct bargaining group. TfL are said to have agreed last year to change the workers contracts but have so far failed to implement this.

Bruce Swann, Unite Regional Officer, said: “The entire employment situation of these workers is a mess. While TfL might claim this is the fault of historic mistakes, Unite believes it is simply trying to continue to run these services on the cheap at the expense of these workers. TfL needs to resolve the massive pay disparity and other issues, or this dispute will continue to escalate.”

Navid Golshan, General Manager for London Trams, said: “We urge Unite the Union to continue to work with us to find a resolution and call this strike off.  Customers planning to use London Trams services are urged to check before they travel, allow extra time for their journeys, and check the TfL website or the TfL Go app for the latest travel information.”

The first strike in this dispute will start at 2000 on 24^th March and continue until 0600 on 28^th March. During this period the following service is expected to run:

Sunday 24^th March

• A normal service is expected to run

Monday 25^th to Wednesday 27^th March

• No service before 0700 or after 1800
• A reduced service will run between Wimbledon and Reeves Corner and East Croydon and Beckenham Junction/New Addington between 0700 and 1800
• No service through Croydon Town Centre or to Elmers End
• Next tram information displayed at tramstops will offer limited information

Thursday 28^th March

• Services will start later than normal with disruption expected for remainder of the day
• Next tram information displayed at tramstops will offer limited information

The major engineering works which will see no trams run beyond Wellesley Road/George Street then starts from Friday 29^th March and will continue until Wednesday 24^th April.

Further strikes are planned from 2000 on 5^th May 2024 until 9^th May 2024 at 0600 and then from 2000 on 11^th July 2024 until 15^th July 2024 at 0600.