OVER 20,000 members of all four Tube unions are standing united, solid and determined to fight for workplace justice and they are a credit to the entire trade union movement.

All four unions representing workers on London Underground overwhelmingly voted for strike action with RMT, delivering a mandate of over 91 per cent.

It seems incredible that Tube management has managed to alienate and anger their entire workforce across all grades with the way they have approached the issue of night-running.

But that is exactly what they have done.

Instead of macho, death-or-glory posturing over take-it-or-leave it offers, now is the time for serious and mature negotiations which address the issues at the heart of this dispute.

Bulldozing through the new rosters without discussion and outside of the long-standing agreements was always a disaster waiting to happen.

Staff feel angry that they are being bullied into accepting new patterns that would wreck their work-life balance and London Underground has to wake up and understand that grievance instead of pretending that it doesn’t exist.

The company also needs to remember that we remain in dispute with it over the parallel issue of 850 station staff jobs losses — losses that would make a mockery of delivering passenger and staff safety on the Night Tube.

The ball is now in firmly in London Underground’s court.

A new wave of industrial action is already hitting services and RMT has been called in for emergency meetings with the safety regulator following a series of serious breaches of safety protocols directly linked to the dispute.

Yet again, instead of addressing the issues at the heart of the dispute London Underground is instead ignoring safety concerns and threatening drivers who refuse to take out trains that have not been properly prepared. That is outrageous and deliberately inflammatory.

London MPs have also condemned the “disgraceful” treatment of Tube workers and called on the London mayor to withdraw the arbitrary imposition of night-working.

Jeremy Corbyn MP and others have tabled a motion pointing out that uncontrolled and unmanaged night work can have a serious impact on the physical and mental health of employees and is detrimental to family and social life.

The motion expresses concern that night-running was being rushed in on the back of massive cuts to staffing and strains on the existing infrastructure, raising genuine concerns among the workforce that the safety and service to passengers and workers will be jeopardised.

It is important to understand that RMT is not opposed to night-running but will not agree to more night-working for staff with no compensatory time off or improvements in pay, not just a one-off payment.

The slash-and-burn antics of the London mayor and his cuts-led agenda will be met with resistance by staff who want to deliver a decent public service in return for dignity and respect at work. Is that really too much to ask?

• Mick Cash is general secretary of RMT.