Union to ballot train guards on strike action

More than 5,000 guards at train companies all over Britain are to be balloted on strike action that would lead to severe disruption on the network.

The RMT rail union is threatening the action in protest at the refusal of train operators and Railway Safety, the organisation responsible for day-to-day operations, to restore guards' safety responsibilities.

Bob Crow, the RMT general secretary, has accused the companies of reneging on an agreement signed by all sides in 2001. Industrial action could hit services run by 21 operators by the middle of next month ahead of a national strike being threatened by train drivers aimed at re-establishing national pay bargaining.

Mr Crow said most operators had flatly refused to sign an agreement the union had reached with Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) to recognise the crucial role played by the guard. "This shameful cash-first attack on safety standards is a threat to everyone who works or travels on the railways," he said. "That means we have no other option but to ballot our train crew members – with a strong recommendation that they vote for action."

He said the safety role of guards was written out of the rule book just days before the Ladbroke Grove accident in 1999, which killed 31 people.

The union said yesterday that most train operators and Railway Safety Limited had reneged on a promise to abide by an independent assessment of the role of guards, which found there needed to be specific provision for such duties in the industry's rule book.

"Under Railway Safety Limited, it seems that railway safety has become very limited indeed," said Mr Crow. "For most operators, safety has come a poor second to profit."

A spokesman for the Association of Train Operating Companies said: "Threats of strike action should have no place in this matter. There is an established procedure for considering changes to the safety role of the guard. The train companies are following that procedure and the RMT should too."

Operators not affected by the threat of action are GNER and the Island Line on the Isle of Wight, which agree with the union, Thameslink and West Anglia Great Northern (WAGN) – where there are no guards – and Eurostar, Heathrow Express and Gatwick Express, which are not part of the bargaining group.