Signal workers strike vote threatens rail chaos
Updated on 19 March 2010
Signal workers vote to back strike action over job cuts in a move that threatens rail disruption during the Easter holidays.
The Rail Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) announced that signal workers voted in favour of strikes in a row over job cuts.
Fifty-four per cent of RMT workers backed strikes. 77 per cent supported staging industrial action without a walk-out.
Both sides in the Network Rail dispute have agreed to hold peace talks at Acas next week, the conciliation service announced today.
Maintenance workers belonging to the union have already voted to go on strike in protest at the 1,500 job losses at Network Rail.
RMT officials had met executives at Network Rail yesterday, 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".
It says most the job losses can be achieved without the need for compulsory redundancies.
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.
The ballot result of the signal workers' came just hours before talks between British Airways and Unite broke down, heralding a series of strikes ahead of the forthcoming general election.
