Tube strikes planned for tomorrow and Thursday are called off after drivers were set to walkout because they DON'T want a four-day week and an extra 35 days off

By RORY TINGLE, HOME AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT and JAKE HOLDEN, UK NEWS REPORTER Published: 14:14, 18 May 2026 | Updated: 14:18, 18 May 2026 Strikes by Tube drivers that were set to bring London to a standstill this week have been called off.   Militant members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union had planned to stage a second series of walkouts against a proposal to introduce a four-day week. Its hard-Left boss Eddie Dempsey claimed the plan could increase fatigue and compromise safety. But Transport for London (TfL) insisted the changes are voluntary and called the walkouts 'absolutely unnecessary'.  The RMT had planned two 24-hour strikes running from 12pm tomorrow into Wednesday and again at the same times on Thursday to Friday.  The Circle line, Piccadilly line, Metropolitan line between Baker Street and Aldgate and Central line between White City and Liverpool Street were set to see no service. The proposal to reduce the working week from 36 hours to 35 was accepted by Aslef but rejected by the RMT's leadership.  Closure signs at a London Underground station during the previous Tube strike last month  RMT Union chief Eddie Dempsey visiting Aleksey Mozgovoy, paramilitary leader in the pro-Russian militias during the war in eastern Ukraine Mr Dempsey, the RMT's general secretary, is a union veteran who still lives in a council home despite now earning more than £100,000-a-year. Shortly after his election last year, it emerged that he had visited the separatist Donbas region of Ukraine in 2015, not long after Vladimir Putin's first invasion of the country.  There, he posed for photographs with the pro-Putin warlord Aleksey Mozgovoy, a commander in the 'Ghost Brigade' of pro-Russian separatists branded a 'terrorist organisation' by Ukraine's Supreme Court. During one rant in 2014, he urged hard-Left activists to back the pro-Putin 'anti-fascist resistance in Ukraine' against 'the Western governments' backing for the far-Right regime in Kyiv'.  Mr Dempsey also signed a letter from the notorious Stop the War coalition, which criticised Nato for showing 'disdain for Russian concerns' in Ukraine at the start of the war.  An RMT spokesman previously said the union 'does not support either Vladimir Putin or his actions in Ukraine' and Mr Dempsey said it 'fully agrees' with its position.  Aslef pointed out that the proposal would give drivers an extra 35 days off a year 'in return for some fairly minor changes to working conditions'. 'It will be the first strike in the history of the trade union movement designed to stop people having a shorter working week and more time off,' an Aslef spokesman told the BBC. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.