The election for the vacant two year co-opt position; and possibly the one year term, will take place at our next branch meeting which will be held on Monday 19th March.

Any member who wishes to be considered for the position/s and is unable to attend the meeting due to work or other commitments must make their application, in writing, to the Branch Secretary.

Link 1

M. BAKER vice VAC line 21


Link 2

A. NDIAYE vice M. BAKER line 21


Link 3

D. SYMONDS vice VAC line 20
A. DAVENPORT vice VAC line 22
J. YOUNG-WALKER vice A. NDIAYE line 33


Link 4

J. KAMALU vice J. YOUNG-WALKER line 6
P. CAMPBELL vice A. DAVENPORT line 11
J. HAYES vice D. SYMONDS line 20

New rosters (P.A.) with effect from the 15th of July 2018 are now available to download. Starred freedays have been altered to 12.5% guaranteed, but this doesn't come into effect until a week later on the 22nd of July. For WC the 15th of July, use the old roster to see what is what (in regard to free days).

Click here for the rosters

Eddie Hill is retiring and having a secret leaving doo at the Stage Door this Friday the 7th of September 2018. It starts either 14:00 or 16:00 depending on who you believe. Whatever you do, don't tell anyone! ;-)

At the September branch meeting 3 members stood and received the nomination for the two upcoming LDC positions that commence on the 1st of January 2019 (both are for a 3 year term). Three nominees standing for two positions means an election by private ballot (sealed box) has been called for the 1st of October (on the date of our next branch meeting).

Each nominee has provided us with a photo, but following guidance from the Chair regarding rule 17(b), we will have to wait for ASLEF to authorise nominees' election correspondence before we post. In addition, whether we can post a verbatim digital copy without showing the stamp of authorisation is not clear. To avoid a potential rule breach, we will only be posting election correspondence as a scan that shows the stamp of authorisation.

To view the election page, click here.

Many of you will have noticed that 'The Platform' is not functioning correctly. This is because SWR allowed the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) security certificate to elapse on the 21st of September. As a result, attempting to connect securely using 'https' will throw up a warning.

You can log here (without secure encryption)

http://theplatform.swrailway.com/

For those worried about the site being insecure, 'The Platform' only adopted SSL encryption a year ago. It goes without saying you should not use the same password for other sites, if you use your 'Platform' password elsewhere, change it or don't log in.

The result of the LDC election 2018 is as follows ;

Eligable to vote	-	204
Papers returned	-	119
Spoiled papers	-	0
Terry Edwards	-	103
Paul Oshomah	-	25
Mark Prenter	-	99

Terry Edwards and Mark Prenter will go through as the official ASLEF candidates for two positions of Waterloo drivers LDC commencing 1st January 2019.

SWR have now installed a new SSL certificate for 'The Platform' and as a result any warnings you may have received over the last 8 days about the connection being insecure will now cease. SWR have purchased the certificate for a period of 2 years which is good, hopefully this means we are okay until the 26th of September 2020.

https://theplatform.swrailway.com/

Final Update 06.11.2018:
During the O2 blockade of our members area, a member pointed out that Virgin free WiFi on LUL was also blocking us. A full investigation revealed that sTalk sTalk 'Kid Safe' too listed us as hostiles.

On the 21st of October, I sent an email to Virgin explaining what the site was all about, and logged an unblock request with a very helpful independent site ;

https://www.blocked.org.uk/

On the 2nd of November I received a reply from Virgin with the subject 'Blocking Request Denied'
Despite the very confusing subject line, it would seem they have now removed their block, and a final check shows there are no longer any active blocks on our site. If you know different, please let us know.

Update 19.10.2018:
This morning O2 responded to an email we sent a few days regarding the blocking of our members area website. They stated that following their review, we have now been classified as a business site. Hopefully this means that within the next few days the block will be removed. I wonder what our previous catagory was?

Original post :
Over the past week, reports have been coming in that some members are no longer able to access the members area of the Waterloo Nine Elms branch website. We have now ruled out this being specific to Apple devices and currently believe O2 (4G service) is blocking us (though the 3G connection currently allows connexions from at least some devices).

Other providers such as giffgaff and Tesco mobile re-sell O2 services, and giffgaff are known to also be blocking the 4G connection. In every case so far, users are on O2 or giffgaff and can still connect using WiFi.

We don't know why they are blocking our site, but do intend to try and find out. Perhaps they think we host adult rated material? If anyone does feel themselves becoming even slightly aroused by anything they read or see on our site, do let me know privately so I can give / pass on the phone number of a superb mental health specialist! Just don't ask why I have the number!

Until we get to the bottom of this (or O2 block this too), we have set up a temporary URL for you to access the members area here.

THE ANNUAL LEAVE FOR 2019/20 HAS NOW BEEN AGREED AND POSTED

1. ALL LEAVE GROUPS ARE SUBJECT TO A DRAW
2. ANY DRIVER IN GROUP 13 SUMMER, WISHING TO APPLY FOR ANY OF THE SUMMER VACANCIES MUST DO SO TO THE LDC BY THE 16th November 2018.
3. ANY DRIVER WISHING TO APPLY FOR ANY VACANCIES (After point 2 above) MUST APPLY BY 15th December 2018.
4. IF AN ANNUAL LEAVE GROUP IS OVER SUBSCIBED, THEN A DRAW WILL TAKE PLACE.
5. VACANCIES WILL BE FIRST COME FIRST SERVED,
   FROM THE 17th December 2018 THROUGH CRO.

ALL APPLICATIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED IN WRITING ON THE CORRECT FORM TO THE LDC.

All other leave periods (WINTER/SPRING) will be Subject to the same rules 1 & 4.

On the 29th of October a UK Government and Parliament petition was created stating :

"Train Operating Companies across London and the rest of the country are beginning to introduce DOO (Driver Only Operation) on their trains. Some companies want to keep a second person on the trains but their role is revenue protection and is not safety critical. This cannot be allowed!"

If you agree with the above, add your signature (corrected link)

The response threshold of 20,000 reached on the 7th of November meaning the government are now compelled to respond. If the 100,000 signature threshold is reached, this petition will be considered for debate in Parliament. The closing date of the petition is the 9th of May 2019.

Next Wednesday 12th December marks the 30th anniversary of the Clapham Rail Disaster and this branch, along with others from within District One (South London and the South of England), will be laying a wreath at the memorial in memory of the 35 who lost their lives on that terrible day. ASLEF members were amongst the awful loss of life, including Waterloo driver, Arthur Creach.

If anybody would like to attend the commemoration, we will be meeting at Clapham Junction (Brighton Yard exit) at 07:30 and taking a slow walk to Spencer Park where the memorial is situated. Wreaths will be laid at 08:10, which marks the time of the crash.

The branch has been informed of a crackdown on drivers who have 'failed' to sign for their weekly notices. Please be aware that downloading the notices onto your tablet does not show up on SWR systems as having been signed for therefore a manual signature is still required.

There have been many occasions where the WONs have not arrived in good time, or even at all. In these circumstances the branch has been advised that drivers still sign for the unavailable publication(s), but write 'not available' where there is space to do so.

Warning letters are expected to be sent out to anyone who has failed to sign. If you receive anything stronger than a warning, please report the matter to the LDC.