UK Rail Union Confirms Strike of Southern Rail's Guards in August

The guards of the Southern Rail will stage a 24-hour-long strike on August 1 against the implementation of driver-only trains on the railway, the UK Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said in a press release Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Driver-Only Operation (DOO) implies that only the one train driver has the sole responsibility for opening and closing the doors and dispatching the train from a station. The system excludes the role of a guard aboard the train, who is responsible for passenger health and safety, including during accidents.

"RAIL UNION RMT confirmed today that guards members on Southern Rail will take further strike action in the on-going dispute in defence of the role of the guard and the guarantee of a second safety-critical member of staff on Southern services… [RMT] has instructed Southern guards members not to book on for any shifts that commence between 0001 and 2359 on Tuesday 1st August," the press release said.

The RMT explained that it staged a new strike due to the failure of the UK government to settle the dispute.

"Neither [Transport Secretary] Chris Grayling and his Government, nor his contractors GTR, have lifted a finger to resolve this long running dispute despite approaches from the union and so yet again today RMT is forced to take action and send Southern Rail a clear message that we will not allow them to strip the railway of a safety critical second member of staff on these vital rail services," RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said, as quoted in the press release.

The strike on August 1 is said to be the first one among three protest actions, with the other two taking place on August 2 and August 4. The strikes coincide with the drivers' walkouts, announced by train drivers' union Aslef on Thursday.

DOO is currently used on about 30 percent of the UK mainline rail network and London Underground.