Railway staff to strike in January
STAFF on South West Trains, serving some of London's busiest commuter routes, are to stage two 48-hour strikes after voting overwhelmingly in favour of stoppages.
Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) will walk out on January 3 and 4 and again on January 7 and 8.
The action will affect more than 100,000 passengers who use Waterloo mainline station and thousands more across the region.
RMT, the rail industry's largest union, has been involved in a long-running dispute with the Stagecoach-owned company over pay and the demotion of a senior union official.
It is understood that employees, mainly station staff and train guards, voted by more than three to one in favour of industrial action.
The union's acting general secretary Vernon Hince said his members were 'incensed' at the way they had been treated by the train operator.
SWT carries nearly 400,000 passengers a day, with half using local and long-distance routes into Waterloo. It serves south London, Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset.
SWT has offered RMT staff two pay deals: either 3.8% over 18 months but which would rise with improved productivity, or a 'no strings' 4% over 12 months. But the union wants parity with train drivers, whose pay this year has leapt by 7.6%.
