Signal staff reject RMT ballot for national walkout

Network Rail - threatened with a series of national strikes - declared it a "victory for common sense".

In a ballot of 5,000 signal workers and other key operational staff, 2,015 rejected the strike call with 1,203 in favour.

They did, however, support the move for action short of a strike.

In a separate ballot in the same dispute, maintenance workers did vote for strike action - but fewer than half bothered to turn out.

The RMT's controlling executive committee will meet later today to decide whether to name any strike dates.

Network Rail called on the union to return to the negotiating table.

Union bosses had originally planned to announce the result yesterday.

Industry sources said this had been deliberately delayed until today because the RMT was hoping news would be buried by Labour's defeat at the Crewe by-election.

A senior NR source said: "We think this is the first time that signallers have voted against strike action.

"Although maintenance staff have voted in favour, two thirds either did not vote or voted against.

"If the union does announce strike dates we are confident we can keep the trains running."

Peter Bennett, NR ' s human resources director, said: "This is great news for passengers and we are pleased with the results of the ballot.

"I am proud that our people have recognised that a fair and reasonable deal is on the table and thank them for taking the time to make their views known.

"We are now calling for the RMT to come back to the table so we can settle this issue as their members have indicated, bringing this issue to a close."

Signallers have the power to halt the national network, used by more than three million passengers a day.

Union leader Bob Crow said the ballots followed NR's refusal to implement a single set of terms and conditions for maintenance staff.

He accused NR of trying to drive down pay and conditions as the company sought to save money - last month it was fined £14 million by the Rail Regulator for failing to complete Christmas and Easter engineering work on time.

The strike ballots followed months of "fruitless talks", he added.

Mr Crow said: "We told the company quite clearly that the secondyear element of their pay offer to operational staff, of Retail Price Index plus 0.5 per cent, would not protect our members against costs that are rising way ahead of the official inflation rate."

He said NR's "cynical response was to offer another tenth of one per cent on the first year element on condition that we did not ballot (for strike action) when they knew perfectly well that it would not address our concerns."