Tube strike looms in London after trade union vote

September 22nd, 2009 LONDON - A British company has come up with new airplane designs that have interiors like a tube train. The most striking feature of the design is its seating arrangement where passengers would sit on seats with their backs towards the windows.

September 17th, 2009 Londoners miffed after Tube map ditches ThamesLONDON — London's subway bosses have erased the River Thames. Mayor Boris Johnson on Thursday joined a chorus of disapproval at a new version of the London Underground map that does not show the river, which divides north and south London.

August 25th, 2009 SF Bay area rail union voting on contractSAN FRANCISCO — Members of a commuter rail union in the San Francisco Bay area are voting on a new contract aimed at averting a strike. Union president Jesse Hunt says he's confident the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency's train operators and station agents will ratify the agreement.

August 15th, 2009 SF rail union, management to resume negotiationsOAKLAND, Calif. — The San Francisco Bay area's commuter rail system and the union representing its station agents and train operators are resuming negotiations to try to avert a strike Monday.

July 17th, 2009 Union sets strike vote on Barclays pension closureLONDON — Britain's Unite union said Friday it will ask members to vote next month on whether to strike against Barclays Bank because of the proposed closure of a final salary pension plan. The union, which represents 25,000 employees of the bank, said walkouts would be staged in September if members approve the strike call.

July 11th, 2009 Calif. furloughs prompt strike threat from unionSACRAMENTO, Calif. — Furloughed and fired up, California's largest state employee union announced on Friday it would ask its 95,000 members to authorize a potential strike.

July 9th, 2009 KOLKATA - A day after threatening to suspend operations at its strike-hit Batanagar unit in West Bengal, Bata India Thursday held talks with union leaders and asked them to exhort the striking contract labourers to end the four-day-old agitation. "The management has told us today (Thursday) that they are willing to listen to the demand of the contract workers, but they have to first withdraw their strike," Bata Mazdoor Union president Subir Chakraborty said.

June 23rd, 2009 Unions meeting with employers over refinery strikeLONDON — Union leaders met with construction bosses Tuesday in an effort to resolve an acrimonious industrial dispute that has led to walkouts across the British energy sector. The UNITE union said it was in talks with the companies contracted to work at Total's Lindsey Oil Refinery in northern England, where more than 600 workers were fired after staging unauthorized strikes over job losses.

June 12th, 2009 London subway strike ends; but disruption goes onLONDON — A two-day subway strike that delayed millions of Londoners' journeys into work ended Thursday evening as the two sides agreed to restart talks. Nine of 11 subway lines were fully or partly suspended because of the walkout by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union over pay, disciplinary issues and job losses.

June 12th, 2009 British postal workers to strike next weekLONDON — A British union says thousands of postal workers will strike next week in a dispute over jobs and services. The Communication Workers Union says up to 10,000 mail sorters, letter carriers and other London employees will walk out June 19 for 24 hours.

June 11th, 2009 London subway strike in 2nd day; union to talkLONDON — For the second day in a row, millions of Londoners struggled to get to work and school and unlucky tourists found new ways to reach museums Thursday as a strike by subway workers shut down much of the city's Underground network. Nine of 11 subway lines were fully or partly suspended because of the walkout by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union.

June 10th, 2009 Londoners struggle to work amid subway strikeLONDON — Londoners squeezed onto overcrowded buses, boarded river boats, pedaled bikes or walked in the rain Wednesday — as thousands of subway workers went on strike and drove the capital to transportation chaos. Tempers frayed as buses struggled through heavier-than-normal rush-hour traffic.

June 9th, 2009 London faces travel chaos as subway workers strikeLONDON — London's sprawling subway network started to shut down Tuesday evening as union workers walked off the job in a dispute over pay. The Rail, Maritime and Transport union said thousands of London Underground workers would stay away from their posts for the next 48 hours.

May 10th, 2009 Safeway, workers agree to continue labor talksDENVER — With the threat of a strike looming, Safeway agreed to resume negotiations with its union workers a day after they authorized a strike, a company spokeswoman said Sunday. The labor contract between Safeway and its workers expired Saturday night without a new labor agreement and workers were planning to walk off their jobs as soon as Monday.

February 3rd, 2009 LONDON - Demonstrators at an oil refinery in Britain were Wednesday urged to abandon their protest after a deal was reached in marathon talks between trade unions and employers at the plant owned by French energy company Total. Trade union officials said they had won a pledge from management at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire, eastern England, that 100 new jobs would be created for British workers at the plant, the equivalent of 50 percent of the 200 posts under dispute.