Left-wing London Mayor Ken Livingstone has answered the criticisms of political opponents and negotiated an end a wave of strikes on the London Underground that have occurred since talks between the Aslef and Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) unions and the Tube?s management broke down earlier this year (see WIT?s for March 3 and Feb. 14, 2002). A major ally of Britain?s labor movement and a staunch opponent of Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair?s privatization efforts, Mr. Livingstone is persona non grata with the increasingly centrist leadership of the British Labour Party that he left and then defeated in mayoral elections this summer. Involving a delay in the pay demands by the rail unions until he takes control of the Tube in the next few months, in return for the independent mediation that Tube management has bitterly opposed, Mr. Livingstone?s solution is unlikely to be what Labour officials had in mind when they demandedhe take action to end the strikes.
See DAVID TURNER, Financial Times, October 9, 2002