Southern Drivers Set to Reject ASLEF Sell-out

Posted in Off The Rails's blog on ,

We seem to be well on course for Southern ASLEF members to vote overwhelmingly to reject the DOO sell-out. The feeling in the depots is that the deal contains nothing new that GTR weren't offering before the strikes.

Tuesday's joint branches meeting was very opposed to the deal. The only defence the ASLEF negotiators would offer was that it was the best deal they could get, which no one buys.

One attempt to defend the deal at Tuesday's meeting was that GTR has said it will train the new OBS [On Board Supervisor, replacement for guards/conductors] to get round the objection that the deal said OBS could only help dispatch if they had pre-existing competency. That promise is obviously not in the deal itself, and the mood of drivers at the meeting was that we could not rely on a vague promise like that.

This is the same workforce that voted a year or so ago to massively reject a poor pay deal that ASLEF recommended, with no background of dispute. It would be surprising to see a different outcome this time given the context of recent strike days.

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