With the death of Pope Francis, the world loses not only a church leader but also a moral compass
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For rail, minimum service levels could be deadly
Aslef general secretary MICK WHELAN warns that any attempt to run trains with a skeleton crew due to the outrageous stipulations of the Tories’ anti-strike Bill could easily lead to a disastrous loss of life
CLARITY AND RESOLVE: Railworkers on a picket line at Euston station in London in September 2023, second from right, Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan
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We face austerity, privatisation, and toxic influence. But we are growing, and cannot be beaten
I HAVE spent most of my adult life working in Britain’s railway industry. And I have spent all my adult life as a member of a trade union. I joined the railway as a guard in 1984 — joining the NUR which, a few years later, when it merged with the National Union of Seamen, became RMT — and then, when I became a train driver, driving freight and passenger services, I joined Aslef, the train drivers’ trade union.
As a railwayman — as a guard, as a driver, and as a union rep — I have always been acutely aware that the railway is a safety-critical industry.
Because when things go wrong — with the technology, the infrastructure, the signalling or the rolling stock — people get hurt and sometimes people die.
More from this author
Aslef general secretary MICK WHELAN writes for the Morning Star on the eve of the TUC in Brighton, about the pay offer from the DfT, relations with the Labour government, and the union’s motion at Congress calling for the renationalisation of rail freight
MICK WHELAN, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ trade union, writes for the Morning Star as union activists prepare to march through Durham today in a display of working-class solidarity at the 138th Durham Miners’ Gala
MICK WHELAN, general secretary of train drivers’ trade union Aslef, writes for the Morning Star as voters prepare to go to the polls in the general election today
MICK WHELAN, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, writes for the Morning Star on the eve of his union’s annual conference in Manchester from Monday 20 to Friday May 24
