'I've been a Northern train guard for nearly 30 years - here's why I'm striking'

This week tens of thousands of workers joined Britain's biggest rail strike in 30 years. Some 40,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union voted to walk out on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in a dispute over pay and conditions that will cause disruption for millions of passengers.

Here one rail worker explains why he took the decision to take industrial action.

Steve Shaw, 52, from Wigan, has worked as a train guard for Northern Trains since 1994 and earns around £30,000 a year. An RMT rep, he was on the picket lines outside Wigan Wallgate and Wigan North Western stations on Tuesday.

"Watching the news and listening to the radio you hear all this talk of 'inflation busting pay rises'. But for most people it's not about pay, it's about conditions, it's about redundancies. The reforms that have put forward would take this industry back 30 years. All the improvements we have made since the railways were privatised would be lost.

READ MORE: How Manchester Victoria looks this morning as train services face MORE disruption

"For example we currently work a 35 hour, four day week, they want us to do a 40 hour, five day week for no additional pay. They are looking at closing ticket offices. They want to bring Sunday within the working week for no additional pay. We get time and quarter for working Sundays at the minute. They're talking about the removal of guards.

"You hear about train drivers' wages, but most train drivers are not in the RMT, they're in a different union. RMT members are guards, cleaners, back office staff, signallers. Lots are of them are on the living wage, or just above - they're on about £20,000 a year. To suggest that these people are earning fortunes is just nonsense.

"We've been