A days-long strike on the London Underground system took effect in earnest on Monday, upending millions of commuters’ journeys and threatening to disrupt life in the capital for most of the week, as workers protest over pay and conditions.
Transport for London, the city’s transit authority, warned that “little or no service” was expected across the Underground network, known as the Tube, from Monday to Thursday after an initial, more limited walkout took place on Sunday.
Up to five million passenger journeys are made each weekday on London’s Underground, which has 272 stations and 11 lines that crisscross the city and its surrounding suburbs.
Members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers last month announced plans to strike, with different categories of workers taking action on a rolling basis, citing fatigue and “extreme shift patterns,” as well as pay.
“The strikes come after management refused to engage seriously with union demands on pay, fatigue management, extreme shift patterns and a reduction in the working week,” the union said in a statement, “as well as failing to honor previous agreements made with staff.”
Transport for London said that it was “working hard to resolve the dispute” and urged the union to suspend the strike action, saying it was offering a 3.4 percent pay increase to all London Underground employees.
The union said in a statement on Sunday that the primary sticking point in talks was its demand for a “small reduction” of the hours in members’ work weeks. “There are 2,000 fewer staff working on London Underground since 2018 and our members are feeling the strain of extreme shift patterns,” it said.
Claire Mann, chief operating officer at Transport for London, said that the agency welcomed conversations about managing fatigue but “a reduction in the contractual 35-hour working week is neither practical nor affordable.”
Both sides said they remained open for negotiations.
Other transportation services in the city, including the Elizabeth line, which runs from east to west London, and the London Overground are running, but Transport for London said that they “may operate differently.”
People needing to travel in the capital were advised to consider walking or cycling, the transit agency said, noting that roads and other transport services such as buses were likely to be “extremely busy and subject to delay.”
A strike was also expected to close the Docklands Light Railway, in east and southeast London, on Tuesday and Thursday, the transit authority said.
There will be no service on the Underground before 8 a.m. Friday, but services are expected to return to normal on all lines by late morning that day.
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