Rail guards have overwhelmingly voted to strike in a dispute over their security role on trains, it was announced today.
Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport union backed industrial action by 84.1% to 15.9% in a ballot which was launched before last week's Paddington crash. The union's executive was meeting to discuss the ballot result and decide whether to name strike dates.
Guards at three rail companies - the Island Line on the Isle of Wight, Great Eastern and Connex SE - voted against taking industrial action, meaning those companies will not be affected by the decision.
Results from two further companies, ScotRail and Midland Mainline, will be announced at a later date. Thameslink and West Anglia Great Northern were not involved in the dispute, but other rail companies throughout the country now face the prospect of strike action.
The union complained that changes to the industry's rulebook, brought in at the start of the month, watered down the safety role of guards. The changes would take away some of the guards' safety responsibilities especially in the event of an accident, the union claimed.
Bob Crow, the RMT's assistant general secretary, said the changes would mean that guards were being changed into "ticket collectors and KitKat sellers" instead of properly trained railway workers.
"They want to give primary responsibility to the driver for the outside of the train in the event of an accident, but what happens if the driver is dead, as in the Paddington disaster?"
A spokeswoman for Railtrack denied that the changes affected a guard's duties and said she hoped talks could be held to avert industrial action.
