London tube strike hit England fans where it hurts
London suffered the most troublesome period of industrial action in 22 months when a 48-hour strike took place by London Underground staff in protest to poor pay. The strike started only hours before a World Cup qualifier match at Wembley and it left millions of commuters in endless queues at bus stops and train stations.
The latest strike is estimated to have cost the UK economy more than £100m and it left 12,000 England fans unable to get to the match on Wednesday evening. Those who chose to get there by different modes of transport were still stuck in traffic jams at midnight thanks to the shutdown on nine of the 11 tube lines.
The Football Association (FA) will compensate fans that were unable to get to the match more than £1m after the FA chief executive, Ian Watmore, vowed to reimburse supporters who were unable to make the match.
London mayor, Boris Johnson, said the strike was ‘ludicrous and unnecessary’ and it later emerged that Johnson refused to be interviewed by Channel 4 News when he found out that the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) leader, Bob Crow, was going to be present for the interview. Talks between the two sides about pay and conditions had broken down at the last minute which lead to the strike.
Crow went on to place blame on the mayor’s Transport for London (TfL) for the strike claiming that they ‘sabotaged’ talks to make a deal. Both sides claim they are ready to begin negotiations but neither looked like breaking the deadlock and normal services resumed on Friday.