Members of the Tube's biggest union have voted by a margin of more than five to one to take action over Tube bosses' back-door attempts to displace hundreds of safety-critical station staff under spurious cover of the recent 35-hour week deal.

"Our members have seen through LUL's misleading statements and have made it quite clear that they will not accept a massive cull of safety-critical front-line staff," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"We are asking the company now to take a step back and withdraw the rosters they are attempting to impose on our members without agreement or safety validation.

"We have asked the company to rescind the hundreds of displacement notices they have issued and work with us to agree safety-validated staffing levels for all stations across the network. So far they have refused.

"Our members understand the issues at stake and have voted overwhelmingly for strike action to defend safe staffing levels and to stop the blatant abuse of the 35-hour week deal they agreed to in good faith.

"RMT station staff will therefore not book on for shifts commencing between noon on New Year's Eve and noon on New Year's Day, and between 18:30 on January 8 and 18:30 on January 9.

"RMT will not accept any dilution of safety standards, either for our members or Tube users, and we hope that the traveling public will join us in calling on London Underground to step back from the brink and talk seriously about these issues," Bob Crow said.

ends

Notes to editors:In the ballot for strike action, there were 1,327 votes (84.6 per cent) in favour and 241 (15.4 per cent) against. In the ballot for action short of strike, there were 1,435 (91.8 per cent) votes in favour and 129 (8.2 per cent) against.