The London Underground shuddered largely to a halt on Monday as the network, one of the world’s biggest public transit systems, was hit by a strike that is scheduled to continue until Friday morning, affecting millions of travelers.
Stations on the underground network, known as the tube, were shuttered, and buses and overland trains were more crowded than usual, while many commuters walked or cycled into the city. Trams and the Elizabeth line, a relatively new route running from the east to the west of London, were operating on Monday.
Still, with more than four million tube journeys made every weekday, stores, bars, restaurants and other businesses were braced for financial losses if, as expected, more people worked remotely and avoided central London.
Against a backdrop of rising food and energy costs, labor unrest has afflicted several parts of Britain in recent years, including a long-running dispute by garbage collectors in Birmingham, usually considered the country’s second city.
The strike on the London Underground mainly centers on a push to improve conditions and eventually to move to a 32-hour, four-day working week.
Drivers of tube trains earned around 65,000 pounds in 2024, worth about $87,000 today, a salary that is above the average in Britain. But they work antisocial hours, with some beginning work at 4 a.m. or finishing at 1 a.m., and many spending their shifts underground without any access to natural light.
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, which represents a range of transportation workers, said it was pushing for Transport for London, the city’s transit authority, to start reducing the working week for drivers from 35 hours to 32.
The union argues that the health and life expectancy of its members was affected by the irregular shift patterns, exposure to dust particles and the psychological impact of suicides on the underground system.
The union argues that the transit authority ran a surplus of about $216 million last year and that the number of staff working on the network had reduced by 2,000 since 2018.
Transport for London has rejected the union’s demands.
“Any reduction in working hours is impractical and absolutely unaffordable, with costs that could run into the hundreds of millions of pounds,” the transit authority said in a statement, adding that it had made a “fair offer” of a 3.4 percent pay increase for all London Underground staff, in line with inflation in February.
Claire Mann, the chief operating officer, called on the union to suspend the strike and to put its offer to members.
Stephen Castle is a London correspondent of The Times, writing widely about Britain, its politics and the country’s relationship with Europe.
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