ASLEF members on London Underground have voted overwhelmingly for strike action in an industrial dispute with the company. In a ballot conducted by Electoral Reform Services drivers were asked two questions:

Are you prepared to take part in a strike?

Yes: 88.4%

No: 11.6%

Are you prepared to take part in industrial action short of a strike?

Yes: 93.5%

No: 6.5%

Turnout was 53.1%

ASLEF’s executive committee, meeting today, has called a 24 hour strike on Thursday 5 October.

Finn Brennan, ASLEF’s organiser on London Underground, said: ‘ASLEF members have voted by an 88% margin to take strike action in our dispute over the failure of LU to deliver on the commitments they made to improve work life balance as part of the 2015 pay settlement.

‘As part of the settlement of the dispute over the introduction of Night Tube, LU agreed to introduce a mechanism to allow drivers to reduce the number of shifts they work, on a pro-rata basis, and “new ways of working” to reduce the percentage of weekend shifts worked by July this year. They have repeatedly refused to make any detailed proposals to do so.

‘For more than 18 months management have prevaricated, stalled and delayed. Deadlines have repeatedly been missed and promises broken while our detailed proposals to resolve these issues have been ignored.

‘Our members’ patience has finally been exhausted and our executive committee has announced strike action. As always, we are ready to meet at any time to try to find a solution, but it is long past time that LU management started to act to resolve this long running dispute.’