London suffers fourth Tube strike ahead of new student protest

London, Nov 30, IRNA -- Commuters in London Monday faced server travel disruption from the fourth strike by Tube workers over plans to cut ticket office jobs.

Workers from the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) and the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) also received support from students, who are planning to stage their third day of action Tuesday against educations cuts and the trebling of university fees.

The National Campaign Against Cuts and Fees (NCACF) expressed solidarity with Tube workers staging a 24-hour walks out that started on Sunday evening and said many RMT activists supported the student protests.

The strike caused the closure of some 80 underground station in London, suspended services on most lines and disruptions on others. The action is the fourth since August and comes after London Underground refused to suspended its cut plans to allow talks.

'Once again RMT and TSSA members have stood rock solid in this dispute over Tube safety,” said RMT general secretary Bob Crow, accusing Transport for London of 'intransigence' in negotiations.

But Mike Brown, London Underground managing director, described the action as 'cynical' and said that services are operating on “virtually all lines this morning despite the pointless strike.”

Last week, Len McCluskey, the newly elected leader of Unite pledged to put Britain's biggest trade union at the forefront of 'an alliance of resistance' against the UK government’s spending cuts that affect all public services.

Following last week’s day of action by students, Britain’s most senior policeman predicted that Britain was facing a new era of violent street protests over government cut plans.

“We have been going through a period where we have not seen that sort of violent disorder,” Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said in reference to sporadic violence erupting during both of the student protests staged so far this month./end