Thousands of London Underground workers will stage two 24-hour strikes next month over rows on jobs, pay, and conditions

The Rail, Maritime, and Transport (RMT) union has said more than 10,000 of its members will walk out on March 1 and 3. 

RMT has been seeking assurances over jobs, pay, pensions, and working conditions following fears of cuts in TFL funding including the London Underground. 

The union general Mick Lynch said: "Our members will be taking strike action next month because a financial crisis at LU has been deliberately engineered by the Government to drive a cuts agenda which would savage jobs, services, safety and threaten their working conditions and‎ pensions."

Lynch added: "These are the very same transport staff praised as heroes for carrying London through Covid for nearly two years, often at serious personal risk, who now have no option but to strike to defend their livelihoods."

"The politicians need to wake up to the fact that transport staff will not pay the price for this cynically engineered crisis."

However TfL’s chief operating officer, Andy Lord has said that the strike action is "extremely disappointing" as there was no discussion or proposals on pensions or terms and conditions. 

Adding: "The devastating impact of the pandemic on TfL finances has made a programme of change urgently necessary and we need the RMT to work with us, rather than disrupting London’s recovery.

"We’re urging them to do the right thing for London, talk to us and call off this unnecessary action."