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 24th March and last until the early hours of Thursday 28th March, which leads directly into the planning engineering works which get underway on Friday 29th 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 24th March and continue until 0600 on 28th March. During this period the following service is expected to run:
Sunday 24th March
- A normal service is expected to run
Monday 25th to Wednesday 27th 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 28th 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 29th March and will continue until Wednesday 24th April.
Further strikes are planned from 2000 on 5th May 2024 until 9th May 2024 at 0600 and then from 2000 on 11th July 2024 until 15th July 2024 at 0600.