|
ASLEF & KEITH NORMAN: REFUSAL TO GIVE INFORMATION FOR "RAILWAYWOMEN" |
23 June 2005
Aslef failed to reply to my (polite) enquiries for information on women members for several months. I began emailing them almost a year ago and, when my publishing deadline began to loom, I phoned them, was given another person to email with my questions, but she just fobbed me off and didn't give me the information.
Eventually I let the Acting General Secretary ('Brother' Keith Norman) know that I was soon going to press and needed the information soon, or I'd have to say in my book that Aslef had failed to supply the information. He replied within an hour, calling me 'impatient' and he verbally abused me, saying I have "the charm of a rabid dog and all the sensitivity of an Aberdeen Angus in a china shop".
A male researcher can get information from Aslef merely by being polite and straightforward, but women, ah well, they are a different species altogether aren't they, Brother Norman? Yes, they have to be ladylike to get anywhere, and in order to be ladylike, he demands that they be "charming" and "sensitive", such stereotypical feminine traits. Any woman who fails to be "charming" and "sensitive" is a dog - in this case, a rabid one - or a cow - or in this case an Aberdeen Angus.
His language is exactly the same as that used by railwaymen towards the first women train drivers and guards back in the bad old 1970s. Was 'Brother' Norman a train driver then? As a union official, he thinks he can continue to use this kind of verbal abuse to a woman, while his own members would nowadays be hauled up in front of the Depot Manager if they were to call women dogs and cows. How very ironic!
READ THE FULL STORY HERE....
I began trying to make contact with Aslef around July 2004 in order to gain information about women in the union. I sent a polite email to the contact address given in their women's newsletter. When I didn't get a reply I didn't worry unduly at first; I was in contact with dozens of other sources and was very busy dealing with the information they were sending me. Every month or so I sent a polite reminder to the same address. Still no reply.
When the need for the information from Aslef began to become more urgent, I telephoned their HQ around March 2005 and politely asked for the information again.
The clerk told me that Rob Griffiths was writing the history of Aslef and so of course would have information on women members. They gave me a mobile number and I rang him. He had no information to give me, but he had seen some articles in Aslef's journal that might interest me. These articles were from the union's own paper, The Locomotive Journal, and they showed how Aslef men and officials were opposing women being drafted in to replace men as engine cleaners during the war, and refusing to admit them to membership.
Rob Griffiths said that he would ask Sian Cartwright, Aslef's Education Officer, to photocopy them for me. I also wrote to her on 21 April so that they both had a note of what I was looking for.
Nothing more was heard, and so I emailed again on April 25, June 6, June 13, advising that the book was soon going to press and was this matter being dealt with. The items were still not received.
I had also emailed Sian Cartwright with a few questions about women in Aslef and asking to be put in touch with any member of their Women's Advisory Committee. She did not even reply.
Clearly, when Rob Griffiths told Sian Cartwright (or she saw for herself) the content of the articles/letters she was being asked to photocopy, she or her superiors decided that they would suppress the information and refuse to let me have the documents.
The information still not being received I wrote to her again on 3 May. Finally, on 16 May she replied to say that she would deal with my request until after the annual conference 'which is next week'. She didn't. I then advised her that I was going to press soon and if I didn't have the information by then, I'd have to say in the book that Aslef had not sent me the information I had asked for.
I thought the General Secretary ought to be informed, because these people are only administrative staff. I sent her the following email:
In reply I received this from national organiser Andy Reed on 23 June:Sian.
The book goes to final proofing on 18th July. After that no more additions can be made as it will go for final typesetting and to print.
If I have not heard from you by Wednesday I will send a letter direct to your General Secretary, in order to give him the option of getting this information to me in time or seeing a note in this, the only book ever written on the subject of women working on the railways to the effect that ASLEF declined to co-operate with giving this information.
My response to whch was:I am somewhat surprised by the peremptory and indeed threatening tone of your email correspondence of today's date.
ASLEF receives many enquiries from researchers, bone fide academics, PhD students, local historians and of course, rail enthusiasts.
We are a busy trades union with limited research resources and thus cannot prioritise answering questionnaires such as yours, particularly during our most busy annual period. We are a membership organisation and as such, prioritise the needs of our members.
Generally, we do what we can to be of assistance to researchers, and would have responded to your request in due course, we would even, in fact, have attempted to respond within your publishing deadline.
However, I raised the matter of your email this morning with ASLEF's Acting General Secretary further to which I can advise that owing to the tone of your email, we will not be providing the answers which you requested. Furthermore, it is policy not to provide names and contact details of our members until proper procedures have been followed.
This received the following helpful response on 23rd June from the acting General Secretary, Keith Norman:I have been asking for some fairly simple information about women in ASLEF for about a year now. After getting no reply from at least twenty emails sent to the secretary of the women's committee over about 9 months I have been writing to Sian Cartwright for about 3 months, only to be repeatedly fobbed off.
My book is going to press next month and although I gave Aslef plenty of time to obtain (at least some of) this information, it has reached the point where the book has to go to press with statements to the effect that Aslef would not supply the information.
The General Secretary has a right to know that the book will have to go to print with the words "ASLEF refused to co-operate and has withheld this information". I want(ed) to give him the chance to avoid such public embarassment.
It is interesting that Andy Reed finds the thought of me telling the GS about Aslef's lack of co-operation 'threatening'.
I think it appalling that such an important piece of historical research as "Railwaywomen" is considered so trivial by ASLEF that it deems it fit not to reply. Aslef has been an anti-woman organisation since railways began. I was hoping to put something in the book about how it has changed, but it obviously hasn't. The fact that it now refuses to co-operate with this, the first and only book ever written on railwaywomen, proves it still to be the case.
I am told that many other people want information. When someone is writing a book on railway labour history (there hasn't been one in the last 25 years), how many years' notice do you need to give them any information?
I pity the poor railway companies. What a person to have to negotiate with. That's the sort of temperament that would start a brawl at a barbecue!I have received your e-mail and I have seen others sent to my staff by you all of which are offensive. For someone seeking assistance with the writing of a book you appear to have the charm of a rabid dog and all the sensitivity of an Aberdeen Angus in a china shop.
I Think you would benefit greatly from an extended period in charm school.
For the record ASLEGF [sic] is not and never has been anti female. ASLEF was the first rail;way [sic] trade union to hold a Women's [sic] conference And [sic] until the second world war we had a very pro active Women's section. [that's funny - women were banned from Aslef before and during the Second World War. Brother Norman really needs to read my book!]
Rob Griffiths spoke to you recently and advised that he would assist you with information. Your demeanour is arrogant impatient and downright unpleasant. Thank you for your concern that I should know and in return I think it only fair that you should now know how I feel. Please do not contact this office or my staff again. Please feel free to print whatever you like ASLEF will respond by publishing your offensive e-mails.
He added later that, with regard to my book "Railwaywomen": "I doubt anyone will read it anyway." That the General Secretary of a railway union refuses to read the only book ever written on women working in his industry is a disgrace.
Apart from all the pathetic personal abuse, he called me "impatient".
I have been asking for this information for a year now. How many years was I supposed to wait?
His response to which was:"I think you need seek professional help regarding your state of mind"
And that sums up Aslef's attitude to women.
Legal note: I have all the original emails relation to the above, complete with full headers to prove that they came from Aslef.
Here's another interesting story about Aslef:
BBC NEWS STORY
Aslef chief's photo 'used as target'
Kevin Maguire, The Guardian, Friday June 11, 2004
Just when train drivers thought the antics of their union leaders could get no worse after the now notorious barbecue brawl, yesterday a photograph turned up from the drawer of the Aslef general secretary showing his predecessor and rival with a mock bullet-wound through his head.
The picture of leftwinger Mick Rix, which appears to have been used for target practice, was discovered in the office of suspended Blairite general secretary Shaun Brady. Even seasoned officials of the 124-year-old body - motto "proud to be union" - were left dumbfounded.
Britain's most powerful industrial union, still reeling from a barbecue brawl three weeks ago that saw Mr Brady and five others suspended, is to hand the cardboard target to a QC hired to investigate the running of the faction-torn union.
Mr Rix, beaten in an election last year by Mr Brady, yesterday visited a London police station to ask for advice after his family expressed concern about his safety.
With a TUC inquiry completed into the barbecue battle, when political infighting exploded into fist fighting, Aslef's left-led executive also decided to investigate the use of union credit cards by Mr Brady and his suspended ally Michael Blackburn.
Over a five-month period Mr Brady spent in excess of £20,000, including two bills at London's Gaucho Grill of more than £730 each, and Mr Blackburn, the assistant general secretary, spent more than £6,000.
Both men strenuously denied any impropriety and insisted all expenditure was on legitimate union business and could be justified.
The TUC report into the barbecue brawl, which saw president Martin Samways among those suspended, was handed to the union yesterday and the panel appointed to discover what happened unearthed conflicting eyewitness accounts.
The target of Mr Rix, a file picture of the former general secretary glued to brown cardboard with target circles ringing his head and a hole in his forehead, is headed "1 round" with the words ".22 ammunition at 25 yds" scrawled just below.
Mr Rix said: "I worry about the mental state of the person who did this. Although I may not take the threat seriously, my partner and my family do."
A spokesperson for Mr Brady denied he made the target, saying it had been sent to him anonymously.
The credit card investigation follows a scrutiny of transactions totalling £20,126.11 for Mr Brady and £6,020.62 for Mr Blackburn between November 2003 and March 2004. Out-of-pocket claims were refunded separately.
Mr Brady's Aslef Co-operative Bank Visa card was used at the bar of the Three Horseshoes, the union's local in Hampstead, on 30 occasions totalling £515.77 and he patronised 20 other pubs and bars as well as paying for shopping in Tesco and Sainsbury's.
Mr Blackburn used his union card on 16 visits to the Three Horseshoes, costing Aslef £289.10, plus £6.59 at the Donkey Store, a shop operated by a charity rescuing distressed animals.
Both men strenuously denied any impropriety and yesterday said they could justify all the expenditure which included authorised entertaining of colleagues, Aslef members, others in the rail industry, petrol, accommodation and travel expenses.
HOME
Contents page
Order the book "Railway Women"
Website HOME