The British Railways Board has offered its employees a £52m pay deal which the NUR has welcomed as a visionary package, while. ASLEF, the locomen's union, has rejected every single item.
For the press, the board, and the NUR Jeadership, the locomen's determination to protect and advance their living and working conditions is entirely regrettable. Much has been made of ASLEF's refusal to recognise what is generally regarded as the declining importance of the men in the cab, and with it their diminishing status. Their action has therefore been presented as a narrow-minded attempt to maintain irrelevant differentials, at the expense of other railway workers, and of course -the long-suffering commuter. WHAT SIZE CAKE Sidney Weighell, NUR assistant general secretary, has made no secret of his attitude: 'Basically, ASLEF wants a bigger slice of the cake than anyone else, and he is evidently concerned that his members might be encouraged to demand a re-negotiation of their own allocation, The fact that, the dimensions of the cake, neatly encompassed by Phase 3, are not supernaturally determined seems to have escaped Weighell's attention. This, unfortunately, is reinforced by ASLEF general secretary Ray Buckton's position-that what the other unions settle for is entirely their own affair.
The roots of the present dispute, and the undisguised bostility between the union bureaucracies, are rooted in a long history of tension between the two unions, and the lechnological development of the railway system itself. It is in this context that the issue of differentials takes on a different complexion.
ASLEF was formed in 1880, when the drivers and firemen who handled the steam engines undoubtedly considered themselves an elite corps among railway workers, When J.H Thomas united three of the railway unions in 1913 to form the NUR, the locomen and the clerks refused to give up their separate organisaLUTE But solidarity actions were not precluded. In 1919 the NUR went on strike and ASLEF although it had already made a settlement of its own, cailed its members out in support. It was in 1924, when ASLEF resisted a proposed wage cut, that the precedent was set for today's spirit of 'going it alone'. On that occasion Thomas condemned the locomen's action and instructed NUR members to continue working, Such memories die hard.
The truncation of the railway system, initially under Beeching's axe, and the replacement of steam by diesel and electric locomotives have taken a heavy toll of ASLEF's membership, Over the past 15 years it has shrunk from 70,000 to 25,000. A significant proporlion of this decline arises from an agreement made six years ago to eliminate 'secondmen' from most cabs. Today there are 20,000 drivers and only 8,000 secondmen. Ironically, in the course of the present work to rule, drivers have been demanding to be accompanied by secondmen, which would seem to be not so much a "rale" as an objective necessity. Train drivers have found themselves almost Empty platforms - but burcaucrats" strategy loaves 90% of men with nothing to fight for next ten years. years Phase 3 limit.
classic victims of technological change, which has stripped their job of most of the clements of satisfaction it once offered, and replaced it with a combination of tedium and responsibility, backed up by stringent medical checks which at any time nay require a man to retire, Further increases in speed on the businessmen's inter-city tines, and the moun ting complexity of the sardine-packed networks, can only add to the strain of the job.
ASLEF has begun to recognise and confront this aspect of profit-molivated development, as Buckton suggested during last year's dispute over the introduction of the Advanced of Red Weekly. ly affected by such "progress".
Between 1960 and 1970, the number of guards was reduced by 34 per cent; signalmen by 46 per cent; and trackmen by 57 per cent. At the same time, their jobs dramatically changed, through innovations such as automat ic signalling, automated marshalling yards, new tracklaying methods, and new ticket machines Neither the NUR, with 250,000 members, not the Transport and Salaried Staffs Association, which represents the white collar workers, has yet reacted to the fact that such develop ments are gobbling up jobs and often intensify ing-not simplifying the work. Meanwhile, Richard Marsh, chairman of the Railway Board announced last March an anticipated loss of 40,000 jobs and 2,000 miles of track over the Last year, ASLEF demanded that the increased payments the Railway Board offered to the super-speed drivers should be paid to all drivers, specifically to prevent the fornation of an elite group. Now, the union is demanding that the offer of £2,25 for 'unsoci al hours" also be paid to all drivers, with the addition of appropriate shift-allowances, Its insistence that daily "distance payments must continue to be paid at 125 miles-instead of the 200 miles minimum proposed by the board would benefit the suburban drivers, who stand to lose around t2.50 of the proposed $3.95 increase in hasic rates through the "consolidation' of mileage allowances into the basic. ASLEF has heen attempting to discuss these matters with the board for the past two The key to the present situation is to put a stop to the present inter-union quarrel and forge an alliance of all railway workeis to fight for a betler overall dea? -a deal ouiside the Such unified action can be scen in practice among the London Underground workers, when an unofticial joint trade union action commitee exists embracing members of all three rail unions. This body has recently decided to call for an all-out stoppage of London Lubes from 4 February unless the Pay Board gives the go-ahead to their t6.3 million settlement with London Transpor!-equivalent to a 20% rise in fotal wages, Joint action between all British Rail employ tes, and coordination with other groups up against Phase 3, like the London tube workers, the miners and the engineers can win major gains for all railway workers. This must be a central concern of militants in ASLEF, the NUR and the TSSA in the weeks ahead RICHARD BRINSLEY Koberts, Assistant General Secretary of the A LEW, Jact Collins Kent Area meiber of the NUM Execu