Unions suspend London underground strike action

LONDON (Reuters) - The prospect of travel chaos in London this week was averted on Monday when three unions said they had suspended their plans for two, 24-hour strikes on the underground rail network for now after progress in talks over the introduction of night shifts. The RMT, TSSA and Unite unions had been set to walk out from 1730 GMT on Tuesday and again at the same time on Thursday. Workers on the network, which transports some 3.4 million passengers on weekdays, have already held two one-day strikes, in July and early August, over the introduction of new night services due to begin in mid-September. The RMT said however that another strike, from Sept. 8 to 10, would be held if the dispute was not completely resolved by then. "The disputes are not over and there are still a few matters that need further attention before we can reach a final position and a resolution," it added in a statement. Unite, Britain's largest union, said in a statement: "There are still some remaining sticking points, but we feel sufficient progress has been made to suspend industrial action as an act of goodwill." The TSSA union also said it would suspend its action but its leader Manual Cortes added: "We are not out of the woods yet." No comment was immediately available from Transport for London, which runs the network. (Reporting by Stephen Addison, Editing by Kylie MacLellan)