Are unions serious about derailing the Royal wedding?

It's a headline that will cause consternation in lots of places and not just in the Royal household.

"Tube strike threat on Royal wedding day"

Business leaders are already gnashing their teeth.

The London representative of ASLEF Steve Grant told Dick Murray, the Evening Standard's Transport Correspondent that the union couldn't rule out a strike on Prince William and Kate's big day on April 29th.

When I spoke to ASLEF HQ they played down the strike describing it as "very premature."

It says it hasn't been discussed by the executive and it would need another ballot as it says the mandate will have run out.

ASLEF represent about half of the Tube drivers on the Underground so the disruption would be extremely embarrassing for the profile of the capital as the world watched, and for the Mayor Boris Johnson, who has posted his own response to this threat on YouTube.

Now the truth is the union isn't ruling out striking on ANY bank holiday as it tries to get triple pay and a day in lieu for working bank holidays.

London Underground says an agreement is already in place that covers bank holidays.

The union knows the world's media will report almost anything to do with the royal wedding and it gets the threat on the front pages.

So there is, of course, an element of brinkmanship and sabre-rattling from the Union.

They walked out on Boxing Day but would they walk out on the day of the Royal Wedding? Would they want to and risk losing sympathy from the public?

Also, some insiders have said to me that there is also a union relations element to this story.

Both the RMT Union and ASLEF are competing for members and so both have to be seen to be fighting their corner.

If that's the case, it also raises the stakes.

So far London Underground have refused point blank to move on the issue of bank holiday pay. But with this hanging over them - how long before talks?

And if ASLEF walks out, will RMT members support them and will there be any sympathy at all from the travelling public?

And so again we enter into the realm of industrial negotiations...

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