London Underground: RMT train drivers' 24-hour strikes from noon on 26 November, 17 and 19 December 2026, 4 and 6 January and 17, 23 and 25 February 2027 (four-day-week dispute)

The RMT has called London Underground train drivers to eight 24-hour strikes, each starting at 12:00: Thursday 26 November, Thursday 17 and Saturday 19 December 2026, Monday 4 and Wednesday 6 January, and Wednesday 17, Tuesday 23 and Thursday 25 February 2027. The dates were announced on 6 November, after Transport for London presented what it called its final proposals in a dispute over a four-day working week that has run since the start of 2026 and already produced strikes in April and the suspended May and June dates.

What to expect: each strike runs from midday on the strike day to midday the next day, so Tube services are disrupted from the afternoon of the strike day and through the following morning. Transport for London has not yet published its service plan; it does so a few days before each date. The second drivers' union, ASLEF, has accepted the proposal and is not striking, so some lines may run a reduced service. The call covers London Underground only — the Elizabeth line, London Overground, DLR, trams and buses are not part of this dispute, though they will be much busier. The 17 and 19 December strikes fall in the pre-Christmas shopping and hospitality period.

Why: London Underground wants to introduce a voluntary four-day week — about a 34-hour week giving drivers around 35 extra days off a year, in exchange for changes to working practices and electronic booking-on — and says drivers who prefer a five-day week can keep it at their own depot. The RMT says the scheme is not voluntary: in its view it means more time driving, longer duties with earlier starts and later finishes, less predictable shifts and the loss of previously negotiated agreements, and it says drivers who refuse could be moved away from their depots. General secretary Eddie Dempsey called it a wholesale attack on conditions presented as a voluntary scheme; TfL's director of customer operations Nick Dent urged the RMT to put the offer to its members.