2012 London Olympic officials have warned members of the city’s subway unions that they will not be “held to random” by unions during the Olympic Games, after London Underground workers went on strike Wednesday. This strike marks the third one in as many months.
“From the beginning we’ve understood the industrial relations exposures,” said Paul Deighton, London 2012 chief executive. “We clearly wouldn’t want to get ourselves in a position where we would be held to random for example. We are thinking very carefully about what the critical components are of the services that need to be delivered and how we manage those relationships early enough to really deal with any at games time. That’s one of the range of risks we think about in those terms.”
Emergency government legislation governing strikes among key public services during the Olympics themselves is not being considered.
“This is the United Kingdom,” Deighton said. “We don’t do this sort of thing here.”
Deighton has placed confidence in the alternative transportation options available in London, should the Underground experience a strike during the Games.
“Compared to other games there are lots of different ways to get to [the Olympic Park],” said Deighton, “but I don’t think we are planning to work around that; you wouldn’t want to be working around it.”
Another aspect of Olympic planning that top London 2012 organizers are facing is security.
“Security is the thing we think about most, talk about least,” said Deighton. “The balance you have to get right. People need to feel safe and in control, but they don’t want their experience sterilized. For me, the traditional concept of the traditional British bobby is the perfect way of bringing it together.”
The opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics will take place on July 27, 2012. Danny Boyle, the Oscar-winning director of the film “Slumdog Millionaire” is head of planning for this enormous event.
“If you look at any of Danny Boyle’s films they have a brilliant soundtrack and Britain has a strong musical heritage,” Deighton said. “In Britain, we have a different approach to humor, which will come in to it somehow. The British do have their own sense of humor. I do not imagine that our ceremonies will lose out on the sense of pageantry or sense of performance. There will be fun in there.”
