Guards on South Western Railway have voted by 88% to continue their industrial action, aimed at preventing the imposition of “Driver Only Operation”.
Unions are required to regularly re-ballot in ongoing industrial disputes; the majority represents an increased mandate for strikes.
South Western is one of several companies attempting to remove safety-critical guards from its services. Workers struck most recently on 8 September, alongside guards on Northern.
Guards on Southern, Mersey Rail, and Greater Anglia have also taken action recently, as part of a national RMT campaign to defend the role of the guard.
On Mersey Rail, the union and the company recently reached an “agreement in principle” that all trains will have a second member of staff on them when the company’s new fleet is launched in 2021.
A joint statement said “additional funding will now need to generated” to finance the second staff member.