Talks to avert London tube strike break down

A London Underground sign is seen in central London September 6, 2010.

LONDON (Reuters) - Talks to prevent a second 24-hour tube strike next month will not take place on Friday with rail unions demanding London Underground (LU) withdraw job cut plans before negotiations resume.

Millions of commuters across the capital struggled to get to work as a 24-hour strike crippled the network early this month.

The two sides, in dispute over plans to cut about 800 jobs, met on Wednesday for six hours at conciliation service ACAS but no progress was made and LU proposed further talks on Friday.

LU says the job cuts reflect the fact that many station ticket offices are barely used, due to more people buying tickets and travel cards online or at self-service machines, and that there will be no compulsory redundancies.

"We cannot agree to this demand. The simple fact is that our customers' needs have changed...and so London Underground needs to change," said LU chief operating officer Howard Collins.

The TSSA rail union said it would not resume the talks while LU's existing job cut proposals were still on the table, but said it was in discussion with ACAS about trying to resolve the issue.

"We have offered throughout to discuss cost savings but the mayor (of London) insists that we accept his figure of 800 job losses before this can happen," said TSSA general secretary Gerry Doherty.

In a statement on Thursday, fellow rail union the RMT said it had made every effort to resolve the dispute through negotiations.

"It is now up to London Underground management to come back to us with a positive response," said RMT general secretary Bob Crow.

The unions plan to hold a series of strikes until the dispute is resolved and are set to strike next on October 3.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Louise Ireland)