Who is on strike today and how will it affect you? Daily update for February 4th

Pipeline workers and legal advisers are on strike today for two very different reasons (Image: Metro.co.uk)

It’s a quieter day when it comes to strike action in the UK today – but don’t expect to see any disruption.

Waves of labor unrest have swept the nation for months, emptying railroads, delaying deliveries and seeing some government services grind to a halt.

Today, there will be two different picket lines – London Underground workers and civil servants.

After two days of massive stoppages of London’s biggest commuter rail services, today it is only the London Underground that will be affected by strikes.

On the first of two days of stoppages, workers on the Bakerloo line who are members of train drivers’ union Asleft (the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen) will strike.

This means the route, which runs from Harrow and Wealdstone in the northwest London suburbs to Elephant and Castle in south London, will be closed.

All other London Underground lines will not be affected by the strike.

Bakerloo line workers walk out over safety concerns (Image: Getty Images)

The union is challenging a plan it says will allow passengers to end up at sidings and depots because of a lack of security checks.

Aslef called the proposal a “flash and dash”, adding that riders would have to rely on listening to unreliable 50-year-old public address announcements to avoid getting stuck.

Transport for London (TfL) managers hope to scrap a safety measure which sees carriages physically checked to ensure they are empty as part of cost-cutting measures.

Finn Brennan, organizer of Aslef on the Underground, said: “This puts both passengers and staff at risk.

“Past experience has shown that removing physical checks means thousands of passengers are unwittingly directed to sidings or depots.

“We understand the pressure London Underground is under to cut costs, but this cannot be at the expense of the safety of passengers and staff.”

TfL said: “The safety of staff and customers is our number one priority and we have never compromised on safety and never will.

TfL says all other London Underground lines will operate as normal today (Image: Geoffrey Swaine/Shutterstock)

“No one wants to see strikes on the network, especially when we are trying to encourage passengers and visitors to return to London. We will continue to work with Aslef and urge them to rescind this action.”

The transport network said no changes have been made to safety checks, but hopes to end the requirement to check that trains are empty at the end of a journey.

Because of the obstructions to the carriage doors, TfL said, it is not possible for customers to get onto the tracks at sidings or depots.

Following the strike, early morning Bakerloo services are expected to go ahead as planned on Sunday.

Bakerloo staff will be out again next Saturday.

Along with the tube workers, solicitors and paralegals who are members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which represents public servants, are picketing.

Counselors work for HM Courts and Tribunals Service which manages court services in England and Wales.

This is the second day of their four-day strike over the development of the Common Platform, which the union says has sent stress levels “through the roof”.

The government spent £236 million on the case database system to “modernize the justice system”. HMCTS says the Common Platform has dealt with nearly 158,000 criminal cases and is live in more than 100 courts.

PCS said the platform was “fundamentally flawed” and called for an adequate risk assessment and a promise that no more staff would be cut because of it.

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