Drivers on the London Underground, the capital's aging subway system, will launch a 24-hour strike later Sunday to protest government plans for the partial privatization of the system.
The action will hit hundreds of thousands of commuters in the capital Monday, who already have to put up with delays and cancellations on the crumbling network.
Transport union ASLEF, which represents 60 percent of the drivers, argues that the government plans would threaten passenger safety.
They point to the legacy of the previous Conservative government's privatization of the national rail network between 1994 and 1996, which has come in for fierce criticism in the wake of a series of fatal rail crashes.
The strike comes despite what appears to have been a government clampdown last Friday over its plans to modernize the Underground.
For years, Transport Minister John Prescott had insisted that the modernisation programme would be paid for by a Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme.
Then on Friday he said he was willing to let the capital's new transport supremo, former New York subway supremo Bob Kiley, look at the PPP plans, reversing his previous position that they were non-negotiable.
But an ASLEF spokesman said: "The grounds for our dispute still stand and we are still going ahead with our strike." The 24-hour strike will start at 17:30 pm (1730 GMT) Sunday.
Bob Kiley was appointed by London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who opposed the government's partial privatisation plans.
Labour maverick Livingstone won last year's race for the mayor's post despite a concerted campaign by the government to install a party loyalist -- LONDON (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
