Striking response to red waistcoat

More than 350,000 commuters who
depend on South West Trains will be seeing red next month when guards strike
over their brightly coloured waistcoats.

Guards and platform
staff are staging industrial action on 3 and 11 May because they say the
waistcoats make them look like bellboys and are unhappy about being forced to
wear name badges.

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A South West Trains
spokesman said the waistcoats were part of a uniform agreed with the RMT when
it was introduced in 1999.

Bob Crow, assistant
general secretary for the RMT, who accused South West Trains of ignoring
procedure, said members also disagreed with the way rosters were drawn-up.