London Midland and ASLEF settle dispute (finally!)

[IanPooleTrains]

Train drivers' union Aslef says it has reached agreement with London Midland in a long-running dispute which has caused weeks of disruption.

Drivers have been refusing to volunteer to work overtime, leaving a shortage of staff, especially at weekends.

A three-year pay deal was discussed which brings parity to employee pay, a large part of the dispute, Aslef said.

The deal has been described by Aslef as a "win-win" agreement. The rail operator was not available to comment.

The proposal will now be put to the union's 605 members who are being advised to accept it. There are 614 London Midland drivers.

London Midland was formed from Central and Silverlink in 2007 and operates services from the Midlands to London and the North West.

Former Silverlink workers had six days more annual leave than former Central workers but were paid up to £1,500-a-year less.

The union has said there had been an undertaking by London Midland to harmonise pay and conditions by March 2009 affecting up to 1,000 issues, which had not happened.

'Recommending acceptance'

But after talks in London on Wednesday, Simon Wellar, national convener for Aslef, said pay harmonisation has been reached by the union offering more "flexibility" and agreeing some productivity changes and the rail operator also "moving" on other issues.

Services should return to normal at weekends while members are consulted and a new pay rate of time-and-a-half has been agreed for Sunday working, he added.

Sunday services have been disrupted by the dispute most weekends since 29 January which both parties have apologised for.

Mr Wellar said: "It's a two-way street this..

"It's what you would call a win-win agreement and our negotiators are recommending our members accept the deal."

Rail watchdog, Passenger Focus, said it welcomed the news and is awaiting more detail.

London Midland operates services through London, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, the West Midlands, Shropshire, Cheshire and Merseyside.

But hey, I might be making this up :roll:

Seriously though, from the sounds of it, ASLEF got what they wanted at the expense of passengers

 

[ralphchadkirk]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13069760

 

[scotsman]

Nope, at the expense of the credibility of London Midland - ASLEF's demands were entirely reasonable and their method of showing their displeasure with LM was mature and, as we have seen today, worthwhile.

 

[Ivo]

I fail to see what is so "mature" about going on strike...

 

[OxtedL]

Careful now everyone...

 

[O L Leigh]

What, again...? No-one went on strike. Take a moment to understand what the dispute was about and what actions were taken.

I also fail to understand how a TOC reaching an agreement with it's workforce meaning that the disruption can come to an end could possibly be seen as being "...at the expense of passengers".

O L Leigh

 

[pendolino]

I fail to see what is so "mature" about going on strike...

What strike?

 

[Ivo]

Oh; sorry. My mistake. I got things mixed up a bit.

I still don't think that telling the vast majority to not turn up on (volunteer) days is particularly appropriate though. Don't they have a conscience, regarding the passengers?

If it's done with though, it will be good to get back to normal at long last.

 

[pendolino]

Oh; sorry. My mistake. I got things mixed up a bit.

I still don't think that telling the vast majority to not up upon (volunteer) days is particularly appropriate though. Don't they have a conscience, regarding the passengers?

Nobody (not even ASLEF) told the drivers not to volunteer for Sundays, they did that of their own accord. As is their right - Sunday work is not in their contracts. As for having a conscience regarding their passengers, I would have thought it was outweighed by their conscience regarding their families.

 

[Mojo]

Let's wait to see what the agreement actually is. Hope it is actually a ''win-win'' agreement and the company hasn't been railroaded (no pun intended) into making an unreasonable settlement to the detriment of passengers and some of their colleagues (see ticket office cuts).

 

[junglejames]

Shows the difficulty when 2 companies are combined. When you have one company offering more leave, but less pay, what do you do? It wasnt an easy situation.

Oh, and the reason people are saying ASLEF got what they wanted at the expense of passengers, is because of the disruption caused whilst they went about their ways. Im not getting into rights and wrongs. Just explaining where that comment came from.

 

[SS4]

Glad to hear it's over.

This backfired spectacularly on LM who cannot have failed to see what would happen if they did what they did and now they've had to back down (evidenced by them not commenting).
I could imagine this as a skirmish in a larger battle between management and unions so I'm glad to hear that the unions appear victorious

 

[junglejames]

Let's wait to see what the agreement actually is. Hope it is actually a ''win-win'' agreement and the company hasn't been railroaded (no pun intended) into making an unreasonable settlement to the detriment of passengers and some of their colleagues (see ticket office cuts).

When I first saw ASLEF calling it a win win, my first thought was that they meant every driver is a winner. ie meaning ex Central drivers got an increase in leave, and ex Silverlink got an increase in wages. Thats what i thought ASLEF meant, but we shall see.

 

[SS4]

Mojo raises an excellent point about passengers and other staff though. Best wait for the agreement to come out

 

[pendolino]

Let's wait to see what the agreement actually is. Hope it is actually a ''win-win'' agreement and the company hasn't been railroaded (no pun intended) into making an unreasonable settlement to the detriment of passengers and some of their colleagues (see ticket office cuts).

I agree, but reading the article in Railnews this month, it would appear that the issue of cuts to ticket office hours and the issue of parity of drivers' pay are entirely separate.

 

[junglejames]

Glad to hear it's over.

This backfired spectacularly on LM who cannot have failed to see what would happen if they did what they did and now they've had to back down (evidenced by them not commenting).
I could imagine this as a skirmish in a larger battle between management and unions so I'm glad to hear that the unions appear victorious

Thats slightly unfair. Can you not see the problems that arise when you combine two sets of drivers on different wages and leaves allowances?
Is it fair on the company to suddenly give every driver the best of both worlds?

 

[DarloRich]

Good news that this dispute has been resolved. FINALLY! (why so long?)

Us London Muppet, sorry Midland, cash cows, sorry passengers, sorry customers were starting to get just a wee bit cheesed off. You know some of us pay a shed load for our season tickets yet you couldnt be bothered to respect us or your day to day customers enougth to run a service, respect us enouth to prevent a dispute or respect some of us enougth to put on replacement bus services or even tell us trains wouldnt be running.

We rely on these services to get to and from work. Every time you failed to run a service you caused each of us trouble. We were late for work, we had to make the time up, you affected productivity and output . In the last week alone 6 services along my line have failed to run. Not at 0400 or 2300 but at 0815 or 1730. Just not good enougth. Not even a sorry in the press release. Shows simply you dont care.

How about a "sorry for the disruption, sorry we made life hard for you, sorry you had to walk a mile to the nearest station with a train service, sorry we messed you about, sorry you couldnt get the train anywhere at the weekends - have a free weeks travel on us as an apology offer" to make up for it? No, ok how about i pay you half my season ticket value for the next renewal to reflect the fact you only ran half the timetabled trains? Oh and before some smart alec starts i dont pay for a bus i pay for a train. If i wanted a bus I would get the arriva bus (if there was one!)

Now if you can just sort out out the slight (!) problems with your customer service you might be on the road to running a decent train service! Oh and maybe answer some emails once in a while.

There are simple "easy wins" this company could take PR wise yet they dont seem to care

PS Rant over - i feel better now. I Have wanted to explode at them for some time but there is no point having a go at the poor ticket office staff when senior management create the mess, sorry stratergy!

 

[O L Leigh]

We rely on these services to get to and from work. Every time you failed to run a service you caused each of us trouble. We were late for work, we had to make the time up, you affected productivity and output . In the last week alone 6 services along my line have failed to run. Not at 0400 or 2300 but at 0815 or 1730. Just not good enougth. Not even a sorry in the press release. Shows simply you dont care.

On a Sunday...?

I'm sorry, I've not been following this dispute in minute detail so forgive me if I missed something. But if you're referring to midweek cancellations then I'm not sure how the resolution to the current dispute would make any difference.

O L Leigh

 

[pendolino]

Thats slightly unfair. Can you not see the problems that arise when you combine two sets of drivers on different wages and leaves allowances?
Is it fair on the company to suddenly give every driver the best of both worlds?

Ok, any settlement was likely to be difficult and possibly expensive, but there is no way that when London Midland bid for the franchise that they would have been unaware of the potential for industrial unrest arising from employing two groups of people to do the same work but on different pay/T&Cs.

 

[DarloRich]

On a Sunday...?

I'm sorry, I've not been following this dispute in minute detail so forgive me if I missed something. But if you're referring to midweek cancellations then I'm not sure how the resolution to the current dispute would make any difference.

O L Leigh

They have been doing LOTS of midweek cancellations to. Is it not all caught up in the overtime/work to contact hours dispute?

 

[pendolino]

On a Sunday...?

I'm sorry, I've not been following this dispute in minute detail so forgive me if I missed something. But if you're referring to midweek cancellations then I'm not sure how the resolution to the current dispute would make any difference.

O L Leigh

To be fair, there were a few services cancelled midweek due to crew shortages arising from the dispute. It wasn't just Sundays.

 

[Ivo]

These pictures, which I took on my First Class Great Escape day, show services being affected by the dispute on a Tuesday (22nd February to be exact). These were taken at Rugby and Atherstone (the former was a service I was due to use; tha latter was taken from on board a 350).

Notice how the former refers to "industrial action".

 

[DarloRich]

LM have been quite good at spinning it to make it SEEM like a Sunday only problem. Check this website out before they take it down:

http://www.londonmidland.com/your-journey/potential-disruption-to-services/?=

 

[Invincibles]

So do some drivers get more pay and less leave and others more leave but less pay?

Seems like that is how you do an average and treat everyone fairly?

 

[wibble]

Thats slightly unfair. Can you not see the problems that arise when you combine two sets of drivers on different wages and leaves allowances?
Is it fair on the company to suddenly give every driver the best of both worlds?

That's just one of the things you have to accept in life - you can't always have what someone else has! If that were the case, there would be no difference between TOC New Entrant and Safeguarded staff benefits!

 

[notadriver]

The difference is the TOC/New entrant issue involves all grades. ASLEF seems to have been able to secure the best rates of pay, terms and conditions for it's members.

 

[swt_passenger]

So do some drivers get more pay and less leave and others more leave but less pay?

Seems like that is how you do an average and treat everyone fairly?

I expect the union stuck it out for both pay and leave to be equalised upwards, with no one losing either - but we'll probably never hear what the agreement turned out to be.

 

[Invincibles]

I expect the union stuck it out for both pay and leave to be equalised upwards, with no one losing either - but we'll probably never hear what the agreement turned out to be.

So in that case it was whoever gets the counter adjustment who is hurt, good these deals where everyone wins eh?

 

[tbtc]

Shows the difficulty when 2 companies are combined. When you have one company offering more leave, but less pay, what do you do? It wasnt an easy situation

Agreed.

The Unions were always going to argue that one set of staff should have more holidays and the other set of staff should have a higher salary. Any TOC will struggle in those circumstances, because they can't just pay everyone "the best of both worlds".

This affair has made me think again about potential future franchise redraws - e.g. if TPE was merged into Northern then will the Union(s) find differences in salaries/ terms/ conditions and argue that the lower ones be brought into line with the higher ones?

Ultimately, all of this has to be paid from somewhere

 

[ANorthernGuard]

Agreed.

The Unions were always going to argue that one set of staff should have more holidays and the other set of staff should have a higher salary. Any TOC will struggle in those circumstances, because they can't just pay everyone "the best of both worlds".

This affair has made me think again about potential future franchise redraws - e.g. if TPE was merged into Northern then will the Union(s) find differences in salaries/ terms/ conditions and argue that the lower ones be brought into line with the higher ones?

Ultimately, all of this has to be paid from somewhere

if that happens there would be 3 different sets of T&C's for the drivers and then the same for the guards as there has not been Harmonisation between any of the grades, it came relatively close for the guards (which I actually voted for) HOWEVER with wallets being squeezed more than ever no one in there right mind would accept losing ANY money, we can all take moral high ground etc, but when it comes right down to the bottom line each member of staff has to do decide what is right "for them".