I am writing to you to ask for your vote in the forthcoming election for the post of LDC rep at Waterloo.

A lot of you already know me, but for those of you wondering "who's that chap?" let me give you a brief introduction to myself!

I started my Railway career as a Shunter on the Great Western, at Old Oak Common depot in 1989. I then gained my promotion to Driver in January 1991 and made the move from 'Old Oak' to Waterloo to begin my driver training, before eventually passing out in December 1991.

Since 1998 I have been in the Night link at Waterloo. However, I will be coming out of the Night gang and taking the charismatic Mr Thorrington's place in the top link in September this year!

So now you may well be asking yourself why should I vote for this Hopkins character?! Well, if elected, my main agenda will be as follows ;

• Work with the present and any future staff reps and depot manager to try and get more main line work back to the depot. Not an easy task, but we have a new depot manager and hopefully a 35 hour 4 day week just around the corner, so not an impossible one. Work with the LDC as well as listen to your views on how we can allow drivers a greater say in the link they work.
  
  
• Continue to work a shift pattern when booked staff rep. If it is good enough for YOU to work Mornings, Afternoon's and Evenings, then it will be good enough for me. After a settling in period I will, if booked staff rep, come in for early mornings and late afternoons so you have access to a staff rep for longer periods throughout the day. This is of course subject to there being no agenda, roster meetings etc when all the LDC are required to be in at the same time.
  
  
• Begin discussions at branch level as to how we can get more members involved in the running of the branch. It can't be right that on average, 7% of the membership make branch policy. It is imperative that the majority, not the minority, have a say in branch decision making. We must therefore, look at ways of getting more members involved in the branch, using all the modern means at our disposal.
  
  
• Produce a folder to be left in the messroom, which will contain all the basic information a driver needs regarding, altered turns, cancelled turns, your rights when you don't sign a route or form of traction for a booked diagram etc, etc. Although a lot of this information is currently available in the raft, it is a case of trying to find it at present!

So there you have it. These are some of the things I will get to work on if elected in October.

If you want some fresh blood on the LDC, vote for Andy Hopkins on October 10th.

Thank you for you time.


Yours fraternally

Andy Hopkins