Was the tube strike worthless?

Last week’s tube strike cost London businesses an estimated 100 million in lost productivity.

Last week’s tube strike by members of the RMT cost businesses in London 5.2 million work hours at a cost of around £100 million. London workers spent an additional 1.3m hours getting to work on the morning of Wednesday 10th June alone due to travel disruptions caused by the tube strike, equivalent to 188,000 lost working days. A survey of 1,000 Londoners found that 33% of London-based employees were disrupted by the strike. Many abandoned their journey to work altogether with 5% working from home, 2% taking the day off and 1% even admitting to taking a ‘sickie’.

Key findings from the survey revealed:

  • 54% of London workers were forced to travel into work despite the strike
  • 34% of London adults were disrupted by the strike
  • 5% managed to mantain productivity by avoiding the commute and working from home
  • 2% of workers took a day off to avoid the disruption
  • 1% of London workers admitted taking a ‘sickie’

With the country in the midst of a recession and many businesses feeling the pinch, the RMT’s demands of extra pay for less working hours have not gone down well with the majority of commuters. It can also be pointed out that despite some of the figures above, the strike wasn’t an absolute success. The vast majority of London workers (including myself) simply took overhead trains to a station close to their office and simply walked the rest of the way, enjoying the sunshine as they went, meaning disruption for most was minimal. And, despite the strike, a good service remained on the Northern Line, seven lines offered a partial service and a further two lines were operating close to normally. Only the Circle and Waterloo & City lines remained suspended throughout the strike action.

Since the strike, RMT boss Bob Crow has threatened to strike again if his Union’s demands were not met. This won’t make him any more popular with Londoners and the public at large – a recent poll on the Times website titled ‘Who is the most unpopular trade union leader in British history?’ saw Crow running away the vote, with 72% of the votes cast!