Watford postal workers could strike in support of suspended

[norbert]

gawd time has flown innit.. i remember the are you making it up as you go along after ladbroke grove and connex..

i dont think laurie holden had much of a pay out.. think it was around 50k but don't quote me on that

50k not much of a payout you must be rich if you think 50k is not alot.

he got £55 grand - Connex also fought it to the bitter end ( bit like RM with IT's ? ) which didn't impress the Tribunal Award Panel - Connex would have thought it was a cheap way to get rid of him for being an absolute pain in the a*** & a thorn in their side .

He'd written too many letters to the ASLEF staff paper that were published & to the Railway Inspectorate when Connex would solely be concerned with spin & PR ( bit like RM ? ) & cost savings .

No TOC - Train Operating Company would touch him with a bargepole after the ET , his only option would be to work for ASLEF , there would be some in ASLEF that don't want to rock the boat with the TOC's as 1 . They can get release doing rosters / duties 2 . They can get deals for their members but the price is being a company man & sometimes shafting the RMT i.e. driver only trains when the RMT reps are trying to get their guard's work .

As bad as the CWU may or not seem to be , at least with RM it's only one union and it CAN be harder to play divide and rule .

If one of Connex's managers went to a tribunal , then Connex would sh** themselves and throw money at the problem . RM don't like their managers going to tribunals as it's harder to sweep the s*** under the carpet i.e. Elmar Toime got a golden handshake of £500,000 for " personalty clashes " with :lfo , the civil service types before :lfo & :cfo got golden handshakes too for cockups like Consignia and buying up European Parcel companies up for 1 million and selling them back for a tenner .

Unfair but that's how it works , a twisted bitter manager that has a chip on his shoulder about being disciplined and / or sacked is regarded as dangerous .

Laurie's problem was that he was too a good a rep and too old school pre privatization British Rail - the culture had changed from the old military type chain of command to one of blame and competition , paranoia & mistrust .

[fatherchristmas]

no news from watford yet local union commitee to meet at 14:30 to discuss what to do the rest of us just had a normal day i thought we might have walked out this morning only seems to be a few of us left with any fight. not so long ago we would have walked at the drop of a hat will keep you posted.

[johnsouthwales]

how the hell connex became an operater in the first place.. connex were exposed for what they were. u dont muck about with things like transport. connex and the like needed to be exposed, and unfortunately it was the lapse attitude of the TOCS that brought this around. laurie was doing what he was paid to do. his job.. ok, it was a bit overboard with the smoking complaints. ive had that before when people who weren't eating at the time. comes acoss as cantankerous. we used to say, if you don't like it, go for a walk. people wern't lighting up during eating time as that was respect. usually towards the end of meals.
if members were asking him to look at avenues to create a non-smoking area, fair do. but smokers should not suffer their break cos someone else don't like it.

it was a bit unusual that he slipped on the wood. that could easily have been accused of slipping deliberately and unfortunate it happened to him. but that was the attitude from tocs, not acknowledging a hazard. but it was dangerous when rest times were affected. that was unacceptable.

health and safety still is an issue in parts. overcrowding in trains is one, which is a different kind of hazard, and not a health and safety issue in which an employee directly works.

i don't like that term, 'too good at your job'.. ulimately, what does that mean? it would be a bit silly for a football team to sell a best player cos he was too good of a player.. what laurie did was pricking conscience. and connex got the hump cos they knew they were in the wrong by not addressing the issues.