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Subway strike slows London By
Thomas Wagner 9/25/02 "It is time to worry and to fear a return to the bad old days, when a minority in a union can force misery on millions," said Digby Jones, the director general of the Confederation of British Industry. He was referring to public-sector strikes in 1978-79, during what became known as the "Winter of Discontent." Garbage piled up in the streets and corpses went unburied during those strikes, which helped topple the Labor government of James Callaghan and bring Margaret Thatcher to power. The Labor Party under Prime Minister Tony Blair has distanced itself from the unions, which have looked more willing to act on their dissatisfaction over Blair's policies. That was evident yesterday when the 24-hour subway strike — the second in two months on the system known as the Tube — made a mess of Londoners' commutes, snarling traffic and leaving millions of people stranded. Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union and the train-drivers union Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) walked out at 8 p.m. Tuesday and stayed off the job until the same time yesterday. Train service was not expected to return to normal until today. The workers want a pay raise and have rejected London Underground's offer of a 3 percent raise. London Mayor Ken Livingstone said the strike would cost London's
economy $93 million. The subway normally carries 3 million passengers
a day. |