Londoners are preparing for a 24-hour strike by thousands of transit workers who operate the London Underground train service, officials said.
The Rail Maritime and Transport union and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association said workers would walk out at 6:30 p.m. Sunday to protest the loss of 800 ticket office jobs, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The action is the fourth 24-hour work stoppage in recent weeks, and talks at the conciliation service Acas ended Thursday without an agreement.
Officials said they would operate an extra 100 buses to alleviate problems caused by the striking tube workers.
"This daily crisis will only get worse unless there is an immediate halt to the cuts program and urgent top-level talks with the unions to map a way forward from this chaos," said Bob Crow, RMT general-secretary.
Transportation officials said the strikes hurt working Londoners who depend on public transportation to get to work.
"If they (unions) are serious about resolving this issue, they should call off their totally unnecessary strike immediately," said Howard Collins, chief operating officer of the London Underground. "We will talk to them right now on any genuine safety issues they have. We want an end to this dispute and believe that a resolution will be only achieved through talks, not by further threats to disrupt London."
UPI
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