Campaigns
Campaigning is ASLEF's core activity. Whether we are pressing for improvements in wages or conditions in a single company, arguing for a change in legislation to benefit our members, seeking justice for the underprivileged in this country or the abused abroad - we are on the campaign trail.
Currently our major priorities include our efforts to introduce Track to Train Surveillance Systems to alleviate level crossing dangers; the movement of increased UK freight by rail; and support for the struggles of the Cuban and Colombian people.
We try to make our campaigns innovative and eye-catching, and employ a range of tactics from Parliamentary lobbies and public demonstrations, to organisation of seminars and the production of literature. We believe that a union that ceases to campaign ceases to exist: and that any organisation committed to justice and equality will never have to look far for a cause that deserves our support.
- Free travel for drivers
- One of the union’s priorities for the coming year is to attempt to secure equal and improved free travel facilities for all our members, irrespective of service. We believe this should include residential and leisure concessionary travel – which was only granted to active ‘safeguarded’ staff who were employed prior to April 1, 1996. It is ASLEF’s belief that these concessions should be made available to all employees and their nominated partners, including same sex partners, regardless of length of service - and that the facility should be retained into retirement.
- Congestion Charge Campaign
- This year’s AAD delegates proposed a campaign to secure congestion charge exemption for train drivers who are only entering the payment Zone to provide a public transport system. Specifically, the aim is to ensure that drivers are not penalised for moving into or out of city centres because they are on early or late turns.
- SQUASH in the Cab
- ‘SQUASH IN THE CAB’ – is ASLEF’s campaign to improve our members’ working conditions within driving cabs. We’ve called the campaign ‘SQUASH’ because it reflects what many cabs are like today - and outlines our objectives.
- Punish Corporate Killing
- The theme for this year’s International Transport Day of Action on 27 March is Corporate Manslaughter – specifically why the government has produced nothing eight years after promising (in the 1997 manifesto) that a law would be introduced.
- Rail Union Pensions
- Thousands of workers past and present, who have an interest in the Railways Pension Scheme (RPS), need your help. The rail industry unions – ASLEF, CSEU, RMT and TSSA – are backing a major campaign to safeguard workers’ retirement benefits.
- Freight on Rail - Who Care's?
- Freight on Rail is a campaign working to get goods off roads and onto rail as an important step in developing a more sustainable distribution system. ASLEF, along with our sister unions RMT and TSSA, assist in bringing together the rail industry, the Rail Freight Group and the environmental transport campaign Transport 2000 to promote the benefits of rail freight both nationally and locally.
- NPC National State Pension Campaign
- In today’s Britain, with the fourth strongest economy in the world, at 2.5m older people are living below the poverty line, whilst millions more struggle to pay their rising fuel bills and council tax.
- Safety First - Track to Cab technology
- This year we have been promoting TrackMaster, a device that would considerably reduce if not eliminate accidents caused by obstructions on the line, a simple solution at minimum cost.
- Safety First - London Tube Bomb Attacks
- Following the attacks on London's transport system on 7 July and 21 July the union put a number of demands to ensure the maximum protection for its members and issued advice about train radios, the HOT procedures, seat security tags and unmanned stations.
- Justice for Colombia
- The situation in Colombia is not new, nor different in the sense that repression of working people by imperialist powers is as old as capitalism itself. The trade union movement has always been a vehicle to combat social injustice both nationally and internationally.
