21.04.2004

The right to know

Open warfare has broken out within Aslef, the train drivers’ union. Hardly a shock for outsiders who know anything about the organisation. Ever since the surprise election last year of Shaun Brady as general secretary tensions have been building. Brady - a supporter of the Blairite wing of the Labour Party - defeated the leftwing incumbent, Mick Rix, who himself replaced Lew Adams, a close friend of Brady, in 1998.

Battle lines have been drawn between the left-dominated executive committee and the new general secretary. There is an unprecedented loathing for Brady amongst a majority on the EC, while, for his part, Brady does not hide his contempt for the EC and many of the staff who work at head office. Last year a dispute broke out at the Arkwright Road HQ when staff threatened to go on strike over conditions and Brady responded by threats to sack them, derecognise their union, the GMB, and recruit a scab workforce, using the Tory anti-trade union laws.

The latest escalation was sparked by the fallout from a report into Aslef’s finances by Paul Blagbrough, a financial ‘expert’ and Labour Party apparatchik, brought in by Brady. His report identified bad management and questioned the payout to Rix authorised by the EC. Their were five copies of the document, given to named individuals. Unfortunately Aslef president Martin Samways left his copy on top of his bag and it went walkabout. Its contents then turned up on the unofficial website run by Brady supporters, trueaslef.com, and was presented to the trade union-hating Mail on Sunday. The report was then posted back to Samways with a sarcastic ‘thank you’ note.

Blagbrough wrote to the EC on March 21 pointing out that the report was only a draft and could contain inaccuracies. He called the leaking a “breach of good faith” which could only “do damage to the reputation of a union, which has a long, proud and honourable history”. The EC seized upon this to reject the report due to “inaccuracies” and launched its very own WMD. It called in Mathias John Kelly QC to carry out a full investigation into Aslef’s affairs for the last 10 years. This would cover the Lew Adams tenure as general secretary. All officers and elected representatives, along with members, have been told to cooperate fully with this inquiry and the executive’s resolution contained the following instruction: “No other communication, verbal or written, on this matter may be entered into without the authority and sanction of this EC, until the report has been completed and presented to the EC.”

As a final act the executive declared itself to be in permanent session until the investigation is complete and took over direct responsibility for running head office. This effectively suspended the general secretary, who according to the union’s constitution works under EC instructions, from his normal role. Brady was not amused and is reported to have briefed BBC’s Newsnight that he had a case for “unfair dismissal” and had “less authority than the office cleaner”. This comment may be deemed in breach of the EC gagging resolution and could lay the basis for disciplinary action. The EC has also moved against those it alleges are behind trueaslef.com, suspending from office a number of branch officers and local reps. Disciplinary charges are to follow, with the EC hoping this will result in members of the Brady-Adams faction being led to the wall and offered a blindfold. The June annual conference, to be held in Scarborough, looks like being the most bitter for years.

Allegations of financial corruption were central to Brady’s successful campaign against Rix, and the trueaslef.com website was set up to support that campaign. However, the whole affair has now gone much further than simply an internal faction fight. The involvement of Adams, who on leaving office took a job as a senior manager with Virgin Trains and was appointed to the board of the Strategic Rail Authority, points to something bigger.

Aslef has become one of the strongest unions in the country since rail privatisation, which resulted in a certain competition for the skills of drivers amongst the train operating companies. This has not stopped the TOCs attacking working conditions, however, and there is no doubt that the internal wrangling has acted as an unneeded distraction. It also has to be said that there is nothing the companies and government would like to see more than damaging allegations of financial corruption being made to stick. The charges are in some ways reminiscent of those made (with the help of state agents) against Arthur Scargill and the National Union of Mineworkers during the Great Strike 20 years ago.

Rank and file Aslef members ought to be fully informed over every aspect of union affairs. Now it the time for them to assert control over all elected officers, not permit the leadership - whether right or left reformist - to squabble over the union as if it were their private property. All elected officials should receive only the average wage of Aslef members and be and instantly recallable. There should be no bar on discussing the union’s business publicly or privately - in the last analysis all such bureaucratic sledgehammers play into the hands of the operating companies, the law courts and the government.