LONDON — Workers on London’s Underground system will strike on Sept. 24 and Oct. 1 if they have not gained a pay agreement, union leaders said Tuesday.
The Associated Press reports that each strike would start at 8 p.m. and continue for 24 hours, the unions said.
Strikes by members of the Rail Maritime and Transport union and the train driver’s union Aslef are likely to cause severe disruption in the system, which carries about 3 million passengers per day.
London Underground said it could not improve its pay offer of a 3 percent increase. That offer would boost the pay of train drivers to 31,000 pounds (about dlrs 48,000) per year.
“We have awarded a 3 percent deal to all our staff after exhausting all reasonable negotiations with our union colleagues,” London Underground’s human resources director, Bob Mason, said before the unions’ announcement.
“It’s a good deal. It’s a fair deal and strike action will not change that fact,” Mason said.