London commuters yesterday got a taste of the chaos that bosses’ plans to sack 1,000 staff could unleash on the Underground.

Thousands RMT members walked out in a determined bid to stop Tory Mayor Boris Johnson closing every Tube ticket office.

Threatened station staff and drivers were not at work but woke early to unite on picket lines at stations across the city from 4am.

The Morning Star understands that members of other Underground unions TSSA and Aslef refused to cross the RMT picket lines.

And despite the inconvenience to their morning commute, many travellers showed their support to striking workers and through social networks.

Former RMT president Alex Gordon said that’s because “there’s a deep level of understanding that this dispute is about public safety.

“Members of the public have understood that this dispute is about their safety, it’s a dispute about staffing the most densely trafficked, busiest underground system in the world,” he said.

“If you take the staff out of that system by cutting 1,000 jobs, getting rid of ticket offices and introducing driverless trains — the public won’t feel that would benefit them in any way at all.”

All Tube lines were hit by the solid action of the first of five planned days of strike action.

Mr Gordon said Transport for London claimed to run more services to avoid paying compensation to delayed passengers.

He said: “London Underground are claiming to be running a 10-minute service on the Hammersmith and City line.

“It’s a bogus and false statistic. They have been running a train every 45 minutes.”