Will there be Tube strikes in June 2023? What latest RMT ballot means for London Underground services

There is no resolution in sight a year after the Tube strike dispute over jobs and pensions began
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Commuters and visitors face another six months of disruption on the London Underground after workers voted in favour of more strikes.

The RMT has been given a mandate to plan and stage further industrial action until the end of November after members working on the Tube network voted overwhelmingly to press ahead with more strikes. The recent ballot saw 96% of members back further action, on a turnout of 56.5%, as the union and employer Transport for London (TfL) remain deadlocked in a long-running dispute over working conditions and pensions security.

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RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said the result showed TfL could not “wish away the dispute”, which has been running for more than a year and seen up to 10,000 Tube workers walkout, bringing the transport network to a halt

Lynch commented: "I congratulate every single one of our London Underground members for giving us continued industrial leverage at the negotiating table. TfL cannot continue to simply wish this dispute away and the government which has drastically cut the funding to London transport budgets, shares a great deal of responsibility for this continuing impasse.

"London Underground workers want a negotiated settlement and are quite prepared to take more strike action over the next six months to make that a reality."

Although the union has not announced any new strike dates, the mandate given by the latest ballot allows it to plan industrial action from now until late November 2023. 

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The union says that 600 station workers face losing their jobs under modernisation plans proposed by TfL and London Mayor Sadiq Khan. It also warns that more jobs are under threat across train and maintenance operations, and it claims that proposed pension changes could see workers lose more than 30% of their pensions.

 The Mayor’s office has previously blamed “onerous” bail-out conditions imposed on TfL by the government for the conditions being proposed by TfL. 

Lynch said: "The Mayor is under pressure from central government, but he must join us in resisting them and refuse to allow ideologically motivated financial constraints to be used as an excuse to attack tube workers. TfL has healthy revenue streams and our members are among the thousands of tube staff that make it a successful transport provider.”

Will there be Tube strikes in June?

While the RMT and Aslef have both announced train strikes on 2 June and 3 June, no Tube strikes have yet been announced for June. The RMT has to give two weeks' notice for industrial action, so the earliest date strikes could be called would be 13 June. The union will then be able to call strike action for the next six months, so until the end of November.

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