As London Underground workers vote to go on strike in support of a colleague who failed two alcohol breath tests, Matthew Steeples argues that it is time to curtail the rights of essential service workers
There’s plainly hope for drunk drivers given that London Underground workers have voted to go on strike over the sacking of a colleague for failing two alcohol breath tests. That these shameful individuals are able to disrupt services across our capital is ridiculous but that they do so in the name of a beverage loving sort is simply scandalous.
Trying to make excuses for the unnamed driver, John Leach, a Rail, Maritime and Transport Union organiser, commented:
“The current system is unfair because it doesn’t offer safeguards to those with disabilities or who are on certain diets”.
Nigel Holness, the operations director on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, responded by stating:
“You wouldn’t let someone who had been drinking alcohol drive your family in a car, and we don’t let people who have been drinking alcohol drive people’s families in Tube trains”.
“As we have made clear, strike threats will not alter our commitment to safety, nor will they make us consider reinstating a driver who failed two alcohol breath tests”.
Mr Holness is right. This driver should have been sacked and now it is time to reform union law. Transport workers and other providers of essential services should not be allowed to hold this country to ransom any longer.
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