Reports are showing that thousands of Network Rail workers and managers are to be balloted over strikes, which could lead to industrial action. The Transport Salaried Staffs Association said it would ballot more than 2,000 supervisors and managers over jobs. On top of this, almost 13,000 Rail Maritime and Transport union members will also vote.

Both of these ballots are set to start as soon as next week. The results of these ballots will be known by next month. This raises the prospect of industrial action starting March 21^st. However, the actual date that a strike would happen on is not yet known.

Gerry Doherty, The Transport Salaried Staffs Association secretary, said that he hopes that they can avoid any disruption over the Easter break. They are calling for Network Rail to start serious discussions with them now to prevent this from happening. Gerry continued that Network Rial is insisting on going ahead with job cuts. However, they are also refusing to give them any kind of guarantee of no compulsory redundancies, while they keep claiming that jobs will go on a voluntary basis.

The union said that the strike action by the supervisors and managers in the maintenance works and deports would seriously hamper maintenance tasks and quickly disrupt travel. Doherty also warned that another 1,500 union members at Network Rail would be balloted on strike action if Network Rail did not improve on a 0.8 percent pay offered by next Tuesday.

A spokesman for Network Rail said that they are very disappointed to hear about the calls for a strike ballot. He said that it is all part of a wider discussion that is taking place at Network Rail on how the company can change to better serve its passengers.