Strike action by train drivers belonging to the ASLEF union will mean no trains on Northern’s Network today with disruption expected across the weekend
The union says it is targeting both Northern and LNER in this one off action for their persistent failure to comply with existing agreements.
The dispute at Northern centres around management failing to adhere to procedures and agreements on a variety of subjects including bullying, intimidation, and gaslighting of union reps and the subsequent cover-ups of investigations into this. Drivers are fed up with the draconian approach being taken by the company. Senior managers admit that industrial relations are poor and their ‘over the top attitudes’ to ASLEF should end – but their solution is to say sorry, put it down to inexperience, lack of training, etc, and then repeat it all.
Mick Whelan, general secretary of ASLEF, the train drivers’ trade union, said: ‘We are fed up to the back teeth with the bad faith shown, day after day, week after week, and month after month by these two companies.
‘We always stick to agreements which we make. These companies think they can break agreements – which they freely enter into – whenever it suits them. And they’re wrong. This is a shot across their bows and a sign of things to come.
‘They need to stop what they are doing, start to behave properly and honourably, because their drivers – our members – are no longer prepared to be treated like this.’
Mick added: ‘These disputes are entirely separate from our national pay dispute with 16 train operating companies – although LNER and Northern are two of those TOCs – because we haven’t had a pay rise since 2019.’
