The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) is a British trade union representing drivers of trains including services such as the London Underground (Tube).

[5] In 1872, an industrial union, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, was founded with the support of the Liberal MP Michael Bass.

[12] As a result of this defeat, in 1879, drivers and firemen from Griffithstown, Pontypool, South Wales, started to organise to form a craft union separate from the ASRS.

[14] Pontypool branch followed on 15 February, led by Charles H. Perry,[14] one of the drivers who had unsuccessfully petitioned the GWR board the previous year.

[15][16] In the remainder of 1880 ASLEF opened branches at Tondu, Liverpool and Leeds (April), Neath (May), Bradford (June), and Carnforth (July).

[18] Its title page reproduced a stanza of Robert Burns' "Man was made to mourn: A Dirge": If I'm yon haughty lordling's slave By Nature's law designed, Why was an independent wish E'er planted in my mind?

[18] For economy's sake, ASLEF initially chose to be managed by its Leeds branch,[19] as a result of which its first head office was at the Commercial Inn, Sweet Street, Holbeck.

[21] In 1921, it moved to London by buying a house at 9 Arkwright Road, Hampstead,[22] from the family of the late Sir Joseph Beecham, Bt.

[31] In only two days it succeeded in forcing the Liberal Government to set up a Royal Commission to examine the workings of the 1907 conciliation board.

[32] ASLEF's then General Secretary, Albert E. Fox, claimed that the 1911 victory showed there was no need to amalgamate with the ASRS and that Federation should be restored.

[33] Fox drafted a new federation scheme, but in October 1911, the ASRS rejected "the further extension of sectionalism contained therein" and expressed the opinion that the success of the national strike indicated "that one railway union will prove to be most beneficial for all railwaymen".

[37] NUR and ASLEF responded jointly, and forced the Board of Trade to award wage increases in September 1916 and April 1917.

[38] In March 1919, the coalition government indicated that it intended to review the War Wage, with a view to reducing it at the end of the year.

ASLEF[45] and the NUR were prominent participants in the 1926 general strike that unsuccessfully sought to prevent British coal companies from reducing mineworkers' pay and conditions.

In the latter years of British Rail, train drivers were on a basic salary of around £12,000 per annum,[citation needed] supplemented by a set of enhancements for unsocial hours and overtime approximately £4,000–£5,000.

British Rail was run in all departments on an overtime culture to reduce overall wage bills resulting from having to employ extra staff to fill what would be uncovered vacancies.

General secretary Mick Whelan said: "Jeremy understands what Labour has to do to win back the hearts, the minds and the votes of ordinary working people in Britain.