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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National
Rebecca Speare-Cole

South Western Railway workers vote to continue strike action over guard dispute

South Western Railway workers will go back to one day on Thursday for the general election (Picture: REUTERS)

Workers on South Western Railway have voted to continue taking strike action in the long-running dispute over guards on trains.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union backed more walkouts by 416, with just 88 voting against.

A bigger majority also voted to take other forms of industrial action.

It was the sixth time the union has balloted its members on SWR over the issue because of industrial action legislation.

The turnout was 59 per cent, well above the legal threshold for industrial action ballots.

The union has held dozens of strikes over the past two years.

The 27 walkouts in December and on New Year's Day caused travel misery for passengers across the UK during the festive period.

A spokesman for South Western Railway said: "We are obviously disappointed with the result, although it should be noted that less than half of eligible RMT members voted for strike action.

"On this basis we hope the RMT will use the next few weeks as a window of opportunity to work with us to find a solution so that our passengers do not suffer more unnecessary disruption.

"Similar proposals to the ones we have made are already in place with numerous operators across London and the South East, and we have already promised that we will keep guards with a safety critical role on all our trains."

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