Wednesday 17 September 2014



From the notices that went up yesterday it seems that management have conceded on almost every issue ASLEF raised so In future they will abide by the agreed procedures on sickness, days off and TOp errors that apply to the whole of the Tube rather than making up the rules for the Central Line themselves.  Any cases that weren’t dealt with by the proper procedures will be reviewed, the “prompt dispatch” experiment will be terminated and our refresher training will stay at five days rather than being cut to four.


We will also be getting more TOps although there’s no mention of trying to reduce the amount of unwanted overtime caused by late running which is rather strange when you consider the emphasis they’ve been putting on saving money recently.  I guess the inconvenience to passengers of having trains break down while in service and the subsequent delays isn’t as important as claiming that we’re running more trains than ever.


One interesting item at the end of the notice that caught my eye was “ASLEF have agreed a number of meetings at director level to police this agreement”.  To me that suggests if we find ourselves in disagreement we can go straight to the top which could be seen as an admission that Central Line management provoked an unnecessary strike by their dictatorial attitude and senior managers are keen to avoid any repetition.


Another view going around the mess rooms is that this was a test to see what would happen if management tried to be “flexible” with our agreements and the Central Line was a guinea pig for the rest of the Tube.  If that was the case then management have discovered this guinea pig has got bloody sharp teeth and they might need a tetanus shot.

11 comments:

  1. Well Done, Lads. Some positive results have been achieved. You may well be right about The Central being used as a "test bed" for the rest of The Combine...except other branches and unions have been VERY quiet about what has occurred on The Central. A lot of members on other lines still in the dark about what happened and why. Time ASLEF put some notices out at every depot,
    methinks

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  2. (and Lasses!) Agree-but suspect still won't sink in, and particularly with management. They are living this unreal Utopia of future tech that can't afford, can't deliver; and neglecting here and now so badly that you need to start crossing fingers every time drive/travel on tube now that something bad won't happen on journey.

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    1. My Bad. And OF COURSE the Lassies, too! Sorry.

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  3. The ink isn't even dry on the agreement and already new notices about prompt dispatch are being posted up at White City.

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  4. Non meaning to be provocative, but what is the issue with prompt dispatch? Surely getting trains to leave on time isn't an issue?

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  5. Talking of "flexibility", I heard recently that the whole "Fit for Future - Stations" programme has been processing without any regard to the Rule Book and incident management. It's now dawning on certain parties that LU's operational procedures are unworkable under the new regime because - despite the endless propaganda - there won't be the staff (or at least not qualified to the right level). Attempting to run a service at LU levels with staffing on a par with the TOCs isn't going to work.

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  6. I want to join a Central Line ASLEF branch. But I am District driver. Why cant I have a choice of which branch I want to be in? I want Laurence Gill as my Rep. ASLEF are fine but my branch Reps aren't so hot. Its your local Reps that make the difference not which union you are in. Do ASLEF rules allow me to pick my branch? Any comments, please?

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    1. Transfer to East Ham branch, our rep Dave Jones is excellent and has secured some good deals in recent years including a minimum of 2 hours each way travelling time for Upminster drivers when using alternartive lines during engineering works on the District.

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  7. Driverless Tubes by...yawn...2030?

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  8. I think management just see what a shower of shite ASLEF are, agree to it cause they know aslef members wont tolerate too much striking in the future, then just carry on as if no talks/agreements had been made. I read Gary Comforts open letter to drivers, the mans a.......prize......shocked to see managers driving on the W&C line......I mean WTF, one of those managers driving for many, many years is none other than one of ASLEFS MAT council reps.......joke of a union.....sorry, association!!!

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    1. When ASLEF went on strike we effectively closed the Central Line and management conceded all 21 grievances, RMT TOps stayed away because the strike was about issues that concerned them. Plenty of RMT TOps worked when there was a strike over station staffing. ASLEF gets results, RMT got publicity thanks to Bob Crow but not much else.

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