Aslef Journal

April 2010Letters 19PERFECT TIMING, USEFUL TRAININGNew officials made up the Grantham courseIN January, I volunteered to be Secretary of the Westbury branch, rather earlier thanI’d planned. I’d been thinking of applying in a few years when my three children hadleft school, but fate often changes plans and the job needed doing.With perfect timing I received an ASLEF circular about the Branch Secretariescourse for the beginning of March, at Stoke Rochford Hall, Grantham.I secured my place and all too soon departure day arrived. I knew little aboutGrantham (apart from it being the birthplace of ‘She who must not be named’!) - oreven where it is.The sumptuous setting of Stoke Rochford Hall was easily surpassed by thecamaraderie and friendship of my 17 fellow students. During the 3-day course welearned about our role from the tutor and guest speakers - the most popular I’m surebeing Tony from Finance.I now feel more confident about my abilities, especially as we know help andadvice is only a phone call away if we need it.Thanks to everyone on the course for making it a pleasurable and rewardingexperience and a big ‘thank you’ to all at ASLEF HQ for arranging these valuablecourses.Biddy Watson, FGW driver and Secretary, Westbury branchWestern’s Operations Director and to our localDriver Managers at Swansea for their help andunderstanding during Arthur’s long hard fightagainst cancer.I know Arthur was truly grateful for thekindness shown to him and would want it tobe expressed publicly.John Rossiter, Secretary, SwanseabranchPLEASING TRIBUNAL WINMAY we take this opportunity to thankASLEF - and in particular, Stan Moran, NickWhitehead, Brian Corbett along with ClaireAnthony at Thompsons Solicitors in Cardiff -for the help and support they haveprovided over the last 12 months regardingour fight for a redundancy claim which wassuccessfully upheld at a recent IndustrialTribunal.We were freight train drivers for DBSchenker based at Newport in South Wales,and as ‘junior men’ we faced the threat ofredundancy as our depot was identified asbeing one of the ‘at risk’ depots. We weretold that we would be ‘put back’ to DriverOperators and faced a substantial drop insalary and affected pension rights. Someground-staff members would also bedisplaced, as we would be doing their work.With the threat of redundancy loomingwe were fortunate to be offeredemployment as mainline drivers with FirstGreat Western based at Bristol. With this inmind we put in for our redundancyentitlement. However, this was refused onthe pretence that we had been offered jobsas Driver Operators with DB Schenker andwere therefore not being made redundant.We believed all along that we werejustified in seeking a redundancy paymentand with the support of ASLEF our claimhas been successfully upheld.Steve Morgan and Peter Little, FGWDrivers, Bristol WestTHE DIRECT LINENXEA depot drivers felt their views were notbeing listened to at local level, so they got onto ASLEF direct. On hearing our concernsASLEF swiftly organised a meeting solely forthe depot drivers. Very unusual, but withfeelings running high and safety issuesinvolved there was little time to waste. Themeeting took place on 1 March and thesupport from the depots was fantastic.We were all pleasantly surprised by thepresence of so many union reps who came tolisten to us. They seemed genuinely shockedby some of our concerns and asked as manyquestions of us as we did them. Our spiritswere raised and we believe with the help ofour union we will be recognised as animportant cog in the smooth running of ourrailway.Special thanks to N. Gibson for arrangingthe meeting and his colleagues who attended.Leo Paul, Depot Driver, SouthendBranchGONE - BUT YOU’RE NOTFORGOTTENI AM writing to express my sincereappreciation and thanks to members of theASLEF family all over the country for theselfless generosity you have shown to merecently.I was diagnosed with an illness in 2009which forced a reluctant decision to retirefrom the railway. Following a nationalappeal around the ASLEF depots adonation was forwarded to me and myfamily which left us overwhelmed by thekind response and support shown by myfellow brothers.I was a driver for 24 years and 3 daysexactly. And despite many of those workingdays when I would rather have been off, Icertainly miss the banter and company ofsome fantastic people I worked with.My heartfelt thanks go to all the loyalmembers in Yoker and Queen Streetbranches in Glasgow. The intervention andeffort by Council members and brothers IanSmith and Andy Ferguson, together withbranch secretary John McCue, needs an