ASLEF members on the Central Line will strike this Friday after voting by more than 9 to 1 for action in a dispute over the breakdown of industrial relations on the line. This has been caused by managements failure to deal with the issues our reps have raised regarding service control problems affecting our members, abuse of the attendance at work procedure, breach of agreements regarding managers driving trains, abuse of the case conference procedure, harsh and unfair use of the disciplinary procedure and imposition of "flash and dash" unsafe new working practices.

What links these issues is a basic failure to treat drivers on the line with fairness and respect. Management seem to think of drivers as simply an appendix of the trains they operate instead of human beings.

We have seen drivers dismissed because of one mistake after a quarter century of excellent service or reduced in grade because they had time off sick after a traumatic incident.

Underground management have had ample opportunities to resolve this dispute. They have chosen not to, because they believe they will get the results they want by using sticks instead of carrots! They have abused the disciplinary and attendance procedure to try to create a climate of fear on the Central line. But this huge Yes vote has shown that drivers will not be easily intimidated.

The ASLEF Executive Committee have given London Underground notice of strike action on the Central line for all duties booking on between;

00:01 and 23:59 on Friday 5th October 2018;

and 00:01 and 23:59 on Wednesday 7th November 2018.

Talks took place yesterday, (Tuesday October 2nd,) but no agreement was reached.

ASLEF drivers want to see action, not more empty words and broken promises.