It now appears that hundreds of London Underground maintenance workers will stage the first in a series of 24 hour strikes starting today. Union leaders confirmed that this is their way of taking a stand against outsourcing work.

Around 750 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will walk out at 6:45am, followed by stoppages at the same time every Sunday starting February 14^th until the issue is resolved. The action involves workers on lines which used to be maintained by Metronet, including Victoria, Bakerloo, and Central routes.

The RMT union leader, Bob Crow, said London Underground has been hell bent on confrontation through their actions of tearing up the signals framework agreement and through the unilateral introduction of new working practices, which means they can make people work what hours they like when they want them to work it. Rail, Maritime and Transport members have said enough is enough and voted with overwhelming numbers in favor of action.

Bob Crow went on to say that their members’ job security is also being undermined by handing over work to external private contractors that could be handled internally. There have been extensive talks with the company on the rostering issue, but every punitive proposal from RMT has been thrown back. It is the inflexible management that has forced this group into this action, and they expect rock solid support from their members.

London Underground’s chief maintenance officer, Phil Hufton, said that Londoners will share their dismay at the Rail, Maritime and Transports attempt to jeopardize the Tube’s operation over this issue. He went on to say that they are planning to introduce a roster covering 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to ensure planned engineering staff are always on hand.