London tram strike to coincide with Wimbledon cancellation, TfL says

Strikes by London tram staff which could have hit Wimbledon fans going to the world-famous competition have been called off, TfL said.

The Unite union has promised that tram maintenance staff will strike from 8pm on Sunday until July 8 and from July 11 until July 15.

The All England Club tennis competition runs from 1-14 July, with Wimbledon being the extreme south-west stop on the Tramlink.

However, TfL said on Wednesday that the strike had been resolved.

Navid Golshan, TfL’s managing director of London Trams, said: “We are pleased to have resolved this dispute with Unite and the union has withdrawn its industrial action from London Trams engineers.”

He said “tram availability” would determine how many services could be run on Wednesday.

Unite has been taking action since March over complaints that they can be paid up to £10,000 a year less than colleagues in the Underground.

This is despite requiring the same qualifications and performing the same roles as their TfL stablemates.

Unite said it called off the strike after “an improved offer”, with some engineering grades on London’s trams seeing a rise of up to 20 per cent.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Congratulations to the engineers at London Trams who got this deal by standing together in their union and taking strike action.

“This is yet another example of how Unite’s focus on defending and improving jobs, pay and conditions is delivering for our members.”

However, engineering work planned for Saturday and Sunday 6-7 July will mean that no London Tram services will operate east of East Croydon.

Tram passengers were urged to check before travelling.