Square Mile roadworks are a necessary evil August 22, 2010 LAST week, London First published a report entitled “Road Sense”, looking at how to best strike a balance between the costs and benefits of works taking place on the streets of London. As anyone who visits the City with any degree of regularity will be able to testify, streetworks (for, traditionally, there are no highways [...]
Tube staff vote on strike July 19, 2010 LONDON UNDERGROUND (LU) staff will start voting today on whether to launch a strike which would hit millions of commuters. The dispute between trade union RMT and LU is over job security for ticketing workers who currently face up to 800 job cuts and the closure of 240 ticket offices, according to the union. “LU [...]
Tube strike off after pay offer July 12, 2010 Tomorrow’s strike by Tube Lines has been suspended while staff vote on whether to accept a new offer of a 4.2 per cent pay rise and increased job security. Rail union RMT confirmed yesterday that its members would vote on the revised package. Management will recommend that members accept the offer. Tube Lines workers, who [...]
Bringing panache to lunchtime July 8, 2010 THE eureka moment for a new business idea can strike at any time. For Mark Lilley it was while he was eating fresh sushi with his wife in downtown Sydney in the middle of a round-the-world trip in 2002. The result was a ticket home and opening Abokado, a cross between a sushi bar and [...]
BUSINESS IS BOOMING FOR TABLE DANCE KING July 6, 2010 TABLE-dancing mogul Stephen Less may have made his fortune building up Secrets, London’s largest chain of lap dancing clubs, but he’s certainly no one-trick pony. I hear Less has been a rather busy man of late, broadening his horizons to include no less than four satellite business interests. The first – and most austere – [...]
TfL closes door on Tube Lines takeover June 27, 2010 BORIS JOHNSON, London’s Mayor, and Transport for London (TfL) have completed the takeover of Tube Lines. Under the agreement, TfL has purchased all of Tube Lines’ shares from Bechtel and Ferrovial’s Amey, for £310m and will now manage the ongoing work to the Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines. Johnson said the deal will open a [...]
Two-day Tube strike starts June 23, 2010 LONDON Underground maintenance workers began a 48-hour strike at 7pm last night, after last-ditch legal action by employer Tube Lines failed. A High Court judge denied Tube Lines an injunction to stop the strike, despite arguments that the strike ballot was invalid. “We urge the RMT to pull back from taking this needless action which [...]
TUBE LINES STRIKE TO GO AHEAD June 22, 2010 MAINTENANCE workers on the underground will strike this evening after talks between rail union RMT and Tube Lines fell apart. The strike, which will be staged in two parts, is set to commence at 7pm and will last until Friday evening, with another strike planned between 14 and 16 July. Transport for London (TfL), which [...]
Cameron rejects calls for change to UK strike laws June 21, 2010 PRIME Minister David Cameron has vetoed business leaders’ demand to change strike laws as the prospect of industrial strife looms behind planned public sector spending cuts. The CBI, Britain’s most prominent business lobbyist, asked the government to raise the bar for walk-out approvals to 40 per cent of the balloted workforce, not a simple majority [...]
RMT in Tube strike talks June 21, 2010 TALKS TO prevent strikes on the London Underground and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) took place yesterday at conciliation service Acas as rail union RMT met Tube Lines and Serco. Platform and station staff on the DLR, which carries commuters to and from Canary Wharf, are due to walk out for three days starting Wednesday 23 [...]