Rail signal workers vote to strike (From Hereford Times)

Rail signal workers vote to strike

1:54pm Friday 19th March 2010 in

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Railway signal workers have voted to go on strike in a bitter row over jobs, threatening disruption to rail travel in the coming weeks, including Easter.

The Rail Maritime and Transport union said 54% of its members backed strikes, with 77% supporting industrial action short of a strike. Turnout in the ballot was 71%.

Maintenance workers belonging to the RMT union have already voted to go on strike in protest at the 1,500 job losses at Network Rail.

On Thursday, RMT officials met executives at Network Rail (NR), which is seeking to cut jobs and change working practices to allow more maintenance work to be carried out at weekends.

The company described the talks as "professional" and "business-like", and the RMT negotiators will report back to the union's executive.

Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association have also voted in favour of industrial action, threatening the biggest outbreak of industrial unrest on the railways for more than a decade.

The RMT said more than 150 MPs have now signed an Early Day Motion opposing the planned cuts and calling on the Government to intervene.

NR has said 1,100 workers have already volunteered for redundancy and the "vast majority" of the 1,500 cuts will be achieved without the need for compulsory lay-offs.

The firm said it believed it could keep trains running in the event of a strike by maintenance workers, adding that it was not prepared to have the RMT "hold the country to ransom".

NR placed full-page adverts in national newspapers yesterday, warning that strikes would be "totally unjustified".