Commuters and tourists face huge disruption to their journeys after London Underground maintenance workers said that they would strike in a dispute over pay and conditions.

About 1,000 members of the Rail Maritime and Transport union at Tube Lines will walk out at 12 noon next Wednesday and again from noon on Wednesday, September 3.

Although the turnout was just 361, the union said that the workers voted by more than three to one in favour of industrial action in protest at a 4.85 per cent pay offer. RMT officials said that the package was an inferior deal to one accepted on behalf of staff employed on Metronet contracts, the company which collapsed last year and has been taken over by Transport for London.

Bob Crow, the RMT’s general secretary, said Tube Lines employees did the same work as those on Metronet contracts but were not prepared to be “worse off”.

He added: “Tube Lines has made enormous profits on the backs of our members’ hard work, yet they seem to expect that they will accept an inferior deal on pay, pensions and conditions.

“Metronet workers can join a final salary pension scheme, but Tube Lines wants to keep the door closed on it and Tube Lines members are also denied the travel facilities that Metronet staff enjoy.

“Tube Lines’s bottom line seems to be that it is OK for its staff to be treated as second-class citizens so long as the dividends keep rolling in for its shareholders.”

Tube Lines maintains track and trains on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines and operates emergency response units across the underground network, which is used by millions of travellers every day.

More than 700 RMT members working as cleaners on the Tube are also going on strike in a separate row over pay, the union decided today.

The cleaners will strike from 5.30am on August 21 for 48 hours in the latest action over a campaign to win the so-called London Living Wage of £7.45 an hour. It will be their third strike over pay.

A spokesman for Tube Lines said that it had made two pay offers - a one-year deal worth 4.85 per cent or a two-year agreement worth 4.95 per cent in year one and RPI inflation plus 0.75 per cent in year two, which the company described as “very competitive”.

The company added: “We are disappointed the RMT is taking this stance and passengers have every right to feel angry over the proposed action.

“The RMT’s vote against the offer and the length of their proposed action defy reason and perhaps suggests there is an ulterior motive behind the rejection. They have made no secret of their desire for Tube maintenance to return to public ownership.”

“Despite RMT claims that the deal is not equal to that set at Metronet, Tube Lines believes its pay and conditions are very competitive and amongst the best in the rail industry.”

Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat deputy Chair of the London Assembly’s Transport Committee, said that the strike was terrible news for people living in the capital and would achieve nothing.

“We have seen these threats before and fortunately often the strikes are cancelled but that doesn’t stop Bob Crow from holding London to ransom again and again,” she said.

Separately, members of ASLEF, the trade union for train drivers, will today decide whether to stage industrial action over the dismissal of an East Midlands Trains driver.

The union says that the driver has been treated unfairly following an incident described by Keith Norman, general secretary of ASLEF, as “regrettable but not unique”. The driver told police he had been using a mobile phone around the time he passed a red signal.

Mr Norman said: “I felt that the honesty of the driver should have counted for something. It also, given his record, makes a mockery of saying that the discipline system is meant to improve performance. It is being used as a stick with which to beat our members.

“Our member is guilty of an error of judgement. It is a case for a firm warning, not for instant dismissal.”

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