Comrade Rix's success owed nothing to his SLP membership, which was not mentioned in his election address. Although these deals gave drivers a large increase in basic pay, a sizeable portion was not reckonable for pension purposes. Adams was also blamed for the defeat of the 1995 industrial action over pay when he ignored a ballot result rejecting a renewed offer and accepted terms worse than what had been tabled before the action started. There is also growing concern with the relationship between Adams, Prescott and Richard Branson. Aslef was praised by the government earlier this year for going into business with Branson to form Millennium Drivers, a company set up to train new drivers for the private operators.
Profits are to be split between the two.
While Adams turns Aslef into an employer, Branson has started to show his anti-union credentials within Virgin Trains. Drivers applying for vacancies at Manchester who have any record of trade union activity have been rejected out of hand. The election of Rix however does represent a major change within Aslef. Comrade Rix was well known as a leader of the unofficial left opposition and was a star performer at conference, responsible for many of the progressive policy decisions taken. Comrade Rix has been heavily influenced by 'official communism' and has been a long-standing supporter of the Morning Star .