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".
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:
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.
In reply I received this from national organiser Andy Reed on 23 June. Please note that this was over a year after I had first contacted ASLEF for information:
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.
My response to whch was:
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 by ASLEF to be trivial and not worth replying to.
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?
This received the following unhelpful and indeed semi-literate response on 23rd June from the acting General Secretary, Keith Norman:
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 [sic] 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.
{FACT 1: The first railway union to hold a women's conference was the clerks' union.}
{FACT 2: women were banned from Aslef until the late 1970s.}
{FACT 3: Brother Norman really needs to read my book!}
Keither Norman's email continued:
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".
And that, my friends, is the ASLEF general secretary's attitude towards the only book ever written about his female members, the women whose subs he takes and whose interests he is paid to protect, to
all women working in his industry.
He called me "impatient" when, after a year's wait for information, I complained about the delay. I asked him how many years I was supposed to wait.
His response to this was:
"I think you need seek professional help regarding your state of mind"
Legal note: I have all the original emails relation to the above, complete with full headers to prove that they came from Aslef.
Railwaywomen
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