Train drivers at Hull Trains who are members of ASLEF – and all
the drivers at the company are members of ASLEF – are on strike
today [Sunday] in support of a colleague who has been wrongly and
unfairly sacked.
The strike will cause serious disruption and force the company –
an open access operator owned by FirstGroup, the rail and bus
giant which also owns Avanti West Coast, Great Western, Lumo, and
London Tramlink – to cancel many of its services on the East
Coast main line.
Nigel Roebuck, ASLEF's full-time organiser in the north-east of
England, and our lead officer with Hull Trains, said: ‘The
trouble is that the company isn't serious. It's not serious about
meeting us to sort out this dispute. It's not serious about
talking to us to sort out this dispute. And it's clearly not
serious about settling this dispute without imposing
predetermined decisions.
‘All the signs, I'm afraid, are that the company is happy for
this dispute to rumble on, inconveniencing passengers who have
bought a ticket to travel on its trains, letting down passengers
who don't know whether or not to book a service tomorrow, or the
next day, or next week, as they don't know whether it will be
cancelled by the company, and hollowing out Hull Trains' balance
sheet with all that lost revenue.'
Mick Whelan, ASLEF's general secretary, said: ‘The company seems
to think that we're going to give up and go away. And the company
is wrong. That's not what we will do. Because the company is
clearly in the wrong. It sacked a driver, over what it claimed
was a safety issue, who has a clean safety record. The driver did
nothing wrong. The company has behaved not just badly, but
vindictively, in persecuting a driver for doing nothing more than
raising a safety concern.'
Mick added: ‘The company appears to think this is just “a little
local difficulty”. It isn't. There is a very important principle
here that involves everyone in the railway industry. And the
company's failure to act responsibly has enormous implications
not just for rail workers and passengers at Hull Trains but for
staff and passengers right across the wider rail network. This is
a moral issue because we have a culture on the railway designed
to keep everyone safe. Anyone who works on the railway should be
able to report a safety concern without fearing that they will be
penalised, punished, or lose their livelihood. The company has
behaved deplorably.'
Nigel added: ‘We are always available for constructive talks, but
the company has not tabled anything meaningful since early March
and doesn't appear to want to resolve this dispute. The company
says the situation is difficult, as it has decided the driver can
no longer drive trains based entirely on a comment made during a
safety briefing.
‘Our member has been driving trains for more than 20
years and has a completely clean safety record. The
company is punishing and penalising him for something he said, in
the context of a safety meeting, and not for anything he has done
on the track. It wants to take away his livelihood, and ruin his
reputation, for something he said, not for anything he did.'
Notes to editors:
ASLEF has 100% membership at Hull Trains, and drivers voted
overwhelmingly to take action to defend a colleague spitefully
sacked by the company despite having done nothing wrong.
Drivers also took strike action on Friday 7, Saturday 8 and
Monday 31 March; Thursday 3 and Monday 7 April; and Friday 23 and
Saturday 24 May.
Drivers are taking action after the company refused to change its
mind – despite admitting, privately, that it has made a mistake
in what it did and in the way its HR dept went about it – and
sacked a driver unfairly who did nothing more than raise a safety
concern during a company meeting.
