Cleaners on Virgin Trains may strike over fears they may lose their jobs.

Rail union RMT has announced it will ballot members for strike action unless it gets assurances for people's jobs.

Five local jobs in Carlisle are under threat as Voith Industrial Services, which provides cleaning services on the Virgin West Coast trains, plans to cut 37 full time equivalent jobs - the equivalent of 15 per cent of their workforce.

Craig Johnston, RMT rail union relief regional organiser for the north, said the union had received no assurances that there would not be any compulsory redundancies.

He said: "The RMT will ballot for strike action unless we get assurances on the jobs. We don't accept compulsory redundancies without asking members if they want to ballot."

Mr Johnston is confident employees will vote for strike action. He also said the union would campaign against the job cuts in innovative ways like handing out bin liners and toilet rolls to passengers at station platforms.

Cutting jobs will have a detrimental affect on the cleaning service on the trains, Mr Johnston argued, at a time when rail fares have increased at twice the rate of wages in the past six years according to research by the Action for Rail union campaign and the TUC.

Furthermore, those employed to clean the trains do not have any of the benefits enjoyed by other Virgin Trains employees such as a company pension and paid sick leave. Instead they only have statutory sick pay.

Virgin Trains Services outsources their cleaning services to Alstom as part of a facilities contract. Alstom in turn subs out cleaning to Voith Industrial Services. But though Richard Branson is two steps removed from the cleaners of his trains, Mr Johnston is calling on him to put pressure on Voith not to cut its workforce.

"It's a scandal and it's a disgrace that some of the lowest paid workers on Virgin Trains are being sacrificed here for some grubby profits of the private companies," he said.

"Richard Branson is lying on his hammock in the Caribbean while poor cleaners in Carlisle are left on the dole."

Mick Cash, RMT general secretary, said it was disgusting that the staff are being treated like "dirt".

He said: "The company have refused to pull back and as a result the union is now pressing ahead with plans for an industrial action ballot.

“It is about time that Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin outfit stopped passing the buck and started taking some responsibility for the exploitation and abuse of support staff that is now rife on his services."

Mr Cash said the RMT would be calling on passengers to support the staff who "slog their guts out in difficult, overcrowded conditions to make the journey as comfortable as possible".