Our AGM was held on December 11. Head Office correspondence concerned various elections, and the meeting voted for its chosen candidates for the parliamentary panel, TUC regional council, and the appeals committee. We also nominated our AAD delegate.

There followed a district council report from Bro. Cyril Blundell, the contents of which helped us from various AAD resolutions. It is hoped that the AAD will take notice of this branch’s call for no negotiations to alter either PNBs, or the maximum single-manned driving time for footplate staff.

The subject of cross cover also cropped up in Cyril’s report, and it was decided that with the amount of cross covering done by Three Bridges footplate staff, it was now time to ban overtime on spare duties, if cross covering is involved.

After a lengthy and detailed discussion the meeting passed on to the LDC report given by secretary Ray Young. Ray told us that the LDC had at long last agreed a flexible roster with management based on a link system of rotating around an eight week cycle, thus ensuring only 312 rostered hours for each driver every eight weeks.

This rotating roster had been working at the depot since November 28, replacing management’s roster which had been implemented with no staff side agreement on October 3. This turn had repacked the eight hour day at Three Bridges.

Finally it was time for the election of officers for 1984; a number of changes took place, but it’s to the credit and harmony of this branch that all our 1984 were elected unopposed.

DEREK ABRAHAMS

BRANCH REPORTER 

My wife, family and I would like to express thanks to Mr. Black and Mr. T. Bevan and all members of Selhurst club along with my ex-workmates, for the generous presentation and flowers they gave us on Thursday 24 at Selhurst Staff Association Club.

In reply to Bro. Lovell’s letter in the December issue criticising my account of week working on the West Somerset Railway,  I am amazed that anyone could turn what I simply regarded as an inexpensive but enjoyable holiday into a political issue.

Let me assure him that I have been a member of A.S.L.E.F. since 1956 and at present a member of the Horsham branch committee. I am also a third generation railwayman who is totally disillusioned by the efforts of successive governments and managements sabotage what was once the world’s finest railway system by providing an unattractive service then closing “un-economic” lines and sacking staff who have given all their working lives to the railway industry, while at the same time creating jobs for the boys in the clerical and management grades.

One of the reasons for my volunteering to spend half of my annual leave on the WSR was that my bank account was somewhat depleted due to our dispute in 1982, when I spent many hours attending meetings and standing in picket lines (which I would readily go again if the situation demanded) in an attempt to preserve the rapidly eroding rights and conditions of the Society’s members!

To take up Bro. Lovell’s point, redundancy in the West Country, I have twice experienced this situation; once in 1958 when Yeovil Pen Mill Loco closed, when I moved to Weymouth as a cleaner, and again in 1968 when I took promotion in order to avoid redundancy. I have been driving at Dorking EMUT.

The Taunton to Minehead branch was closed by British Rail as uneconomical and was subsequently re-opened by the WSR which is now performing a very valuable service for the community and providing jobs for several people, not to mention preserving a part of our history. Are we as a Society opposed to this?

Finally, in response to Bro. Lovell’s point about “slave labour”, I am at the moment working on the world’s most heavily congested commuter railway with clapped out stock, stopping at up to one hundred stations in a day’s work with sometimes as little as six minutes turn around between trips.

Trains are controlled by a brand new signalling system which fails monotonous regularity resulting in chaos and frustration for passengers and staff. I am “managed” by hordes of supervisors, inspectors and management who are supplied with personal two way radios and the latest VDU equipment, and none of whom seem able to make even the simplest decisions without first consulting the mysterious voice on the other end of the control phone. 

The contempt with which I am treated by administrative staff was again proved to me last week when I was stopped a day’s pay for attending an unavoidable hospital appointment because, to quote my local administrative assistant, “we do not pay you to go to the hospital”.
Comparing this with the respect with which the management of the WSR treats its staff, and the resulting high morale which exists on the WSR, I know where I would prefer to spend the rest of my service.

DAVE SQUIBB

DORKING EMUT

  

The branch meeting held at Three Bridges station on March 11 was, as usual, attended by a very high percentage of our membership.

The meeting started with some amendments to our standing orders, followed by discussion about one of our member who had stood as an unofficial candidate in a recent LDC election. the branch decided that although the person concerned had been roundly defeated, the incident had to be reported to the Executive Committee.

We the moved on to elect our ex-branch secretary, Bro. Dave Shopland, as a co-opted LDC member. We were also forced to switch the position of a few of our branch committee members. One reason was the imminent departure of Bro. Fred Stevens who is soon to be transferred to Battersea. Fred has been a loyal branch committee member at Three Bridges for a number of years. Eddie Keith, Dennis Mould, and Jack Smith from the Gatwick Airport shunt drivers link. This is soon to disappear; all four of them will move to Stewarts Lane (near Victoria) as part of the new Victoria - Gatwick Airport service. The Three Bridges branch wishes all four of them the best of luck in the future.

The rest of the meeting’s business included: nominations for Assistant General Secretary; AAD amendments; and further debate on local matters. Thus a long and enjoyable meeting was brought to an end.

DEREK ABRAHAMS

BRANCH SECRETARY

It is with deep sorrow that I report the death of Bro. G.P. Pullen at the age of 60 years. George died in hospital on march 5, after a short illness. he leaves a wife, a son and a daughter. George, a highly respected member of our depot, will be greatly missed by us all, especially the Motive Power Social Fund to which he devoted a lot of his time.

Who runs British Rail? The British Rail Board will claim they do, which in a manner of working is true. But seen in its more than an expensive extension of an interfering British government.

Daily mirror, 6 June 1984: “That British Rail Chief, Mr. Bob Reid was given instructions by the Transport Secretary, Mr. N. Ridley, on how to handle his pay claim.” 

Whil Mr Reid was playing footsie under the table with Mr. MacGregor, Mrs. T. was working in her bid to destroy the N.U.M.

With the cloud of Serpell overhanging, political manipulation can only mean disaster for the railways. The anti-railway lobby in parliament has the resources to infiltrate BRB, and once established the railway’s future will begin to look very uncertain to say the least. These people are no more than “Chicago gangsters” under a shroud of respectability.

If we as railwaymen, management and staff alike, allow our railways to be continually used as a political football, we shall all be out of a job and the country will be without a railway network.

I pray to God that good will prevail.

R.J. HARRIS

TUNBRIDGE WELLS WEST

I wish to express my sincere thank to the Society and its solicitors, also to Mr. Alan Taylor, secretary of Norwood branch, for help in bringing a successful conclusion to my accident claim recently concluded in the courts.

I realise that without the support of A.S.L.E.F. I would not have been able to pursue this claim against the other car driver, as the cost would have beyond my means.

It is at times like these that the value of belonging to a trade union becomes fully apparent. In appreciation I have forwarded a cheque to the Orphan Fund.

D. GILBERT

NORWOOD JUNCTION

As usual the branch meeting held on Sunday, July 15 was very well attended . it was the third quarter meeting and we again managed to exceed a fifty per cent attendance, which has been the average for this year.

Derek Abrahams of Three Bridges Branch went to see what was happening at one Yorkshire pit. This is what he found.