Northern: ASLEF Reps Carry On Capitulating

Posted in Off The Rails's blog on ,

Another Rest Day Working extension expires at Northern, and yet another one is granted until 28th December.

What the hell are ASLEF playing at? They have the employer over a barrel, absolutely desperate to get all Drivers through training on the new 331 and 195 units in time for them to be introduced more widely with the December timetable change. But once again our ‘union’ has let a contender for the title of Worst Rail Operator Ever off the hook for no reason any of its members can fathom.

Off the Rails has written before about how the Northern Drivers Employee Council has gone rogue and the situation is getting worse not better. Since losing the referendum on the New Deal for Drivers by a huge margin in July, rather than turning back towards the membership and seeking to rebuild and repair the divisions they have sown, they have instead turned inwards and continued with their apparent quest to hand every possible advantage to Arriva Rail North management.

We've seen bullying and whispering campaigns against anyone daring to criticise their blunders, total contempt for the membership as reps have gone back cap in hand to the company to beg for tweaks to the disgraceful ‘deal’ that was so roundly rejected in the referendum, and now further collaboration with the bosses in weakening safety standards.

A rotten axis of rogue reps appears to be dominating the Council, propped up by a minority clique of ‘loyal' Local Level and Health and Safety reps. We say ‘loyal' because they are not loyal to the members who elected them, only to their string-pullers.

ASLEF members need to organise together, flood their branches and use the democratic structures of the union to get their reps under control, or force them to do the decent thing and resign. They are not on our side, they are on the other. They have to be stopped.


As a follow-up to yesterday's post about Northern, we would like to offer any ASLEF rep full right of reply. We believe in what we publish and challenge anyone seeking to imply that we are acting in bad faith to put up or shut up.

Off The Rails topics
Trade Unions

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