THE BRIGHTON BRANCH OF A.S.L.E.F.

 LOCOMOTIVE JOURNAL

MARCH 2008

DISHARMONY IN BRIGHTON

I’M writing in response to the FCC Company Council letter in February’s Journal. In October I wrote to you concerning the 

reality of harmonisation within FCC. Although you said it would be printed in December – it wasn’t.

Instead there was an article extolling the virtues of harmonisation and a letter from a FGW rep encouraging members to vote 

for harmonisation at FGW. If you’d printed my letter it would have given FGW members something to consider when 

deciding whether to vote yes or no.

The FCC council have missed the point. The cause of the anger and mistrust is not the harmonisation deal (which we voted to 

accept) – but the fact that after ‘interpretation’ meetings with union officials the deal implemented is significantly different to 

that voted on. As a result one company council has been voted out – and others may follow.

If anyone would like to read my original letter, email me at stephen.cork3@btopenworld. com and I will forward it.

Steve Cork

F.C.C. Brighton

 LOCOMOTIVE JOURNAL

MARCH 2008

YOU TAKES YOUR CHOICE, YOU PAYS YOUR MONEY

I WRITE in response to Tim Stedman’s letter in the February 2008 Journal regarding staff travel. I agree that if employed in

 the rail industry, rail travel should be free to all, not just train drivers – but as regards to being discriminated against for 

joining the railway after 31 March 1996, I have to strongly disagree.

I joined the railway in 1990 as a railway trainee with a wage of about £76 a week. This came with the perk of free rail travel. 

In 1998 just before DRI was agreed, a driver’s wage had risen to £222.15p a week before tax. Wages weren’t so appealing 

when the railway was in the public sector.

Unfortunately – like it or not – we now work in the private sector. When, in 2000, I chose to move to a different TOC, I lost 

10 years seniority. Does this mean I’m being discriminated against – because I chose to move to a different TOC? No! – 

because it was my choice! So if we all get free rail travel, then surely we should all keep our seniority? (Then when they close 

my depot in December I might get my 1st choice for relocation rather than my 3rd)! I’m sure if I worked for Easy Jet I 

wouldn’t get free or discounted flights with British Midland.

A. Gregg

Brighton branch

PAUL’S CASE HIGHLIGHTS NEED TO CONTACT REPS

The December Journal published a letter from Brighton Representative, Paul Overington.

The letter effectively covered two issues, sleep depravation and hardship moves.

Paul also wrote about the sad circumstances surrounding Luke Veness. Unfortunately, no senior representative had been made 

aware of Luke’s situation and therefore we think the criticism of A.S.L.E.F. is misplaced. We would welcome Paul contacting 

one of us, so we can understand what support and advice Paul gave Luke. Local Representatives are in regular contact with 

drivers and this is crucial in the support A.S.L.E.F. can provide. We like to believe our representatives will guide members to 

the people who can offer assistance to them for any situation they may find themselves in.

WHEN Brighton train driver Zoi Kakouris became an ASLEF union learning rep (URL) seven years ago she’d already been 

an active member of the union’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) consultative committee.

“I decided to become a ULR because I’ve always liked helping people and working on the LGBT side of things meant I’d 

already been involved in a bit of education of small minded people!” she laughs.

Her own schooling had hardly been the happiest days of her life. One day while she was still in the infants she was locked in 

the teacher’s cupboard for refusing to read in front of the rest of the class. Life didn’t improve at secondary school. She was 

bullied by fellow-pupils and did so little during her CSEs that the school forced her to take the English exam twice - because 

she didn’t even put her name on the paper first time around.

‘I had no motivation, there was no one at school you could talk to, and I didn’t get a lot of support from home,’ she recalls.

The next time she had to take a test was the guard’s exam when she started working on the railways: although she failed first 

time, she didn’t give up, passing at the second attempt despite all her difficulties with studying from books. When she went on 

to take the driver’s exam, she adopted a new learning strategy: she got a good friend at work to fire questions at her until the 

answers stuck – and passed first time.

Brighton website memories

I HAVE begun work on a website showing the history of the Brighton Motive Power depots and the creation of ASLEF’s 

Brighton Branch.

It is in some ways a response to the fact that over the years much has been written about the various forms of traction that 

operated in and around Brighton – but there is very little about the footplate-men who actually worked on them.

LOCOMOTIVE JOURNAL

 NOVEMBER 2011

I WOULD like to thank everyone who helped and supported me in the recent General Secretary election. Whilst I’m naturally 

disappointed I’d like to give Mick my sincere congratulations and I look forward to working with him to take ASLEF forward 

on to the next chapter of our history.

My disappointment is tempered by knowing the honour I have of serving as ASLEF’s National Organiser. I will continue to 

give the commitment and energy to that role that you deserve.

Individuals come and go. ASLEF remains.

Simon Weller, 

National Organiser

Why do some members become ASLEF activists or politically active in any form? This was a question I was asked recently 

and, in many cases, it is hard to say. But, for me, it was an accident, nothing planned, no great design; just a sense of ‘that’s 

not right.’

It also has to be said at the outset that there was a great deal of encouragement from a particular member: Dave Griffiths, 

who made it his business to ensure that the young upstarts at Aberystwyth were encouraged ‘to get involved’ and have their 

say as well as ‘have a go’ as branch officers. there was also Mick Richards, another ASLEF man through and through, who 

showed me how to handle a train. A tale in itself...

TRACTION TRAINEE AT WATERLOO

My entry into the footplate grade was nothing unusual–i was at a bit of a loss for a job after my initial choice fell apart (light 

engineering was not such a great career choice in the mid-1980s as the recession bit deep) – so I stumbled into a job as a 

traction trainee at Waterloo at the giddy pay rate of £72.40 a week. ‘this will do for a couple of months,’ I thought...it was not 

a bad job (although drivers would always say it would get better, one day) and a decision to move as a driver’s assistant from 

Waterloo to the small depot at Aberystwyth was one of my better ones. Although basing a career move on memories, as a 

child, of enjoyable family holidays in the area is possibly not the most mature approach to a career move.

It was a very unusual depot at the end of a branch line that seemed to move back in time as it progressed to the Welsh coast. 

unusual and retro to the extent that there were still steam engines on the narrow gauge line out of Aberystwyth operated by 

British Rail until 1988. their sell off precipitated the depot’s closure in 1989: perhaps the first taste of rail privatisation. there 

were some great ASLEF stalwarts at Aber amongst the establishment of ten drivers, who provided an incomparable education 

for a 19- year-old like me. the fact that Aberystwyth was a holiday destination, university campus and had a nurses’ training 

hospital also had certain appeal for a young second man about town.

TRADE UNION YOUTH CAMP

But let’s fast forward nearly 28 years, leaving behind the misty-eyed nostalgia, and return to the original question. Why, when 

you’ve got the job, do some people become activists and where do they come from? For me, it was the encouragement of Dave 

Griffiths, who suggested I attend a trade union youth camp, very common things back in the day. In many ways, this event 

shaped my political outlook and trade union activism. It was a ten day youth camp for young trade unionists from around the 

world, held in the german Democratic Republic (East Germany, as was) to see ‘socialism in action.’ it is at this point that one 

of life’s lessons was learnt. never trust a country with Democratic in its name for they are usually anything but (of the 

Democratic Republic of Congo, the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, etc).

Seeing the destructive effect of an authoritarian stalinist state up close, through the eyes and the experiences of citizens from 

the GDR, some of whom became lifelong friends, changed my perception of authority. it was not something to defer to but 

something to be challenged – wherever it lay.

The disconnect between what was preached in East Germany and what was actually happening made me more determined to 

effect change at home. Those experiences gave direction and conviction to my approach to ASLEF.

A FRIEND’S FLAT IN BERLIN

As I write this, sat in a friend’s flat in Berlin, it is the weekend celebrating the 25th anniversary of the wall coming down, an 

event I ridiculously missed by two hours back in 1989 (although I may have one of the last stamped exit visas from that 

particular day) but it serves to draw a neat parallel.

The last 25 years have been tumultuous for ASLEF – preparation for privatisation, and privatisation itself, changing the 

fundamental nature of the railway here in Britain. the imposition of new bargaining machinery in an attempt to break the 

union’s hold on negotiations and a total shift in the footplate grade’s demographic could have meant the end of what was, in 

many ways, an old fashioned, traditional, craft union.

it was not the end because we used the changes to create a seismic shift away from the culture of the past with huge 

improvements in salary from £11,500 then to an average now of £44,000; from one rest day every eight weeks to the four day 

week we enjoy now; and the abandonment of an unfair and non-guaranteed bonus system to clean salaries.

We now had a bargaining machinery led by lay reps who knew their areas, who took ownership of the drivers’ charter, and 

responsibility for their actions. the industry’s attempt to localise the nature of negotiation allowed the reps, as part of an 

overall strategy, to control overtime. And we used that control as a lever to create new jobs and improve long-term conditions 

across the whole of our profession.