COMMUTERS are set to endure more misery next month when London Underground drivers stage two 48-hour strikes in a dispute over pay.
Members of both Aslef and the Rail Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) have announced they will walk out at noon on March 5 until March 7 and again on March 26 until March 28.
The action was confirmed on Thursday last week when 847 Tube drivers from Aslef followed the lead of the RMT union and agreed to action.
The dispute is over pay parity. At present, Tube passenger-train drivers earn £29,000 per year, which is £4,000 less than the rate for driving engineering trains, whose drivers work mostly at night.
The unions argue that both sets of drivers do the same work and should therefore receive the same rates of pay. London Underground (LU) insists that the two jobs are very different.
The action will hit commuters particularly hard as both unions, which are traditionally bitter enemies, have now teamed up. Virtually all drivers belong to one of the two unions.
LU bosses are believed to be preparing a new pay offer amounting to an extra 3.4 per cent. They could also include jobsharing and changes to shift arrangements.
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