Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen

Infobox Union|
name= ASLEF
country= United Kingdom
affiliation= TUC, STUC, ITF
members= 18,500
full_name= Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen
native_name=


founded= 1880
current=
head=
dissolved_date=
dissolved_state=
merged_into=
office= London, England
people= Keith Norman, general secretary
website= [http://www.aslef.org.uk/ www.aslef.org.uk]
footnotes=

The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) is the trade union representing train drivers in the United Kingdom. [Cite web
url=http://www.certoffice.org/returns/index.cfm?action=display&linkid=53&strType=t&strLetter=a&showActive=1
title=Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen
publisher=Trades Union Certification Officer
accessdate=2008-07-01] Its current general secretary is Keith Norman. ASLEF is part of the International Transport Workers' Federation and the European Transport Workers' Federation.

The union was founded in February 1880 when a group of 56 drivers and footplate staff broke away from the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants following the failure of the 'all-grades' ASRS to support drivers who had had their wages cut and their working hours extended by the Great Western Railway in 1879. Despite the problems and divisiveness posed by breakaway unionism, ASLEF was a progressive union and supported the Independent Labour Party.

ASLEF is a relatively small union (18,500 members in 2007) and has sometimes been characterised in the press as a "militant left-wing" union.

In the late BR period, drivers received a relatively low basic salary of around £12,000 per annum, supplemented by an extremely complicated series of enhancements for overtime. Sunday has never formed part of the basic working week for train drivers in the UK, being worked as overtime. Thus many drivers chose to work Sundays in order to make a better income.

In the period immediately after the privatisation of British Rail in the mid-1990s, ASLEF negotiated improved pay and conditions of service for its members from the new train operating companies.

Train drivers are now amongst the best-paid blue-collar workers in the UK, with the average salary in 2007 being over £30,000 for a basic 35-hour week – often worked over four days rather than five. As a result, relatively few drivers choose to work overtime and some companies, particularly Central Trains, have experienced difficulty in staffing trains on Sundays.

General Secretaries

*1880-1885 Joseph Brooke
*1885-1901 Thomas G. Sunter
*1901-1914 Albert E. Fox
*1914-1936 Jack Bromley
*1936-1939 Richard Squance
*1940-1947 William Allen
*1948-1956 James Baty
*1956-1960 Albert Hallworth
*1960-1964 William J. Evans
*1964-1970 Albert Griffiths
*1970-1987: Ray Buckton
*1987 - 1998: Lew Adams
*1998 - 2003: Mick Rix
*2003 - 2004: Shaun Brady
*2004 - present: Keith Norman

In Popular Culture

According to the character Rik, in BBC television's "The Young Ones", ASLEF is an anagram of 'Total and Complete Bastard'.

ee also

* ASLEF v. United Kingdom (2007)

References

External links

* [http://www.aslef.org.uk/ ASLEF web site]
* [http://www.aslefwaterloonineelmsbranch.org/ ASLEF Waterloo Nine Elms Branch]
* [http://www.certoffice.org/returns/index.cfm?action=display&linkid=53&strType=t&strLetter=a&showActive=1 accounts]
* [http://www.unionancestors.co.uk/ASLEF.htm Trade Union Ancestors: ASLEF]
* [http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2008/116.html Trumm v Norman]