Bob Crow.

Spanner, enough said.

Was hoping this was a RIP thread

He does what he thinks is right for his members. He has a whip hand and uses it effectively. He does to employers exactly what employers do to workers when they hold all the cards.

Wish he was my union rep to be honest

As far as I can tell, railworkers are the only group of workers to have been privatised and seen their pay go up. Some of this is down to inept management sacking too many experienced workers when they got their hands on the train companies, but a lot of it is down to their traditions of being in a union and being prepared to fight for their interests. Almost every other union rolls over when jobs are under threat.

On the council house thing, when I was a kid, all sorts of people lived in council houses, including train drivers. Now pretty much only people on benefits and pensions do. People without any political clout. Is it any wonder we have a housing shortage when hardly anyone can get a secure home without taking on eye-watering levels of debt? The answer isn't to take one house off one Millwall supporter, but to build more.

Brilliant article by Littlejohn on him today.

Even some of the staunchest Labour voters must be embarrased by him.

I am sure he is a good union rep, but when only 30% of his members agree with him you have to question whether he is working for his members or trying to get one in the eye of those nasty Tory Eton toffs.

Mixed.

Unions are vital, there is no getting away from that. However too much power can sometimes not be a good thing.

He does a good job in getting the maximum for his members, but is equally an odious individual. And whatever rules allow him to live in a subsidised council house need changing yesterday.

On a £150k salary he should be able to buy his council house.

Now that would be a Spanner in the works.

Bob Crow has a job to do for his members and he does it bloody well - that's why the Tory press hate him so much.

If Boris wants to take Crow on and smash his union then he could try and do so - except Boris would have to have the balls for a long and nasty fight which might damage him politically.

As for Crows house, if he lived in a mansion he'd be attacked for that too.

What really winds the press up is that Crow does not give a toss about them or what they write about him.

LargeAddick said:

I don't agree with what Boris is doing BUT around 70% of the membership either voted no to strike action or didn't vote at all. Not much of a mandate for strike action.

Agreed, but that is the same with voting in Governments rarely do the people who run this country have a majority (I am assuming that the combination of ConDems does have a majority of those that voted but not those that are eligible to vote). If people do not agree with the strike, which presumably means they will lose wages, Then they should get off their butts and vote.

We've had this discussion before, I think. In general I'm a supporter of the Trade Union movement and was a member of Unite.(Depressingly, that useless outfit thinks I still am despite my resignation many years ago!)
Crow's members and some on here think he is doing a great job. I disagree.
For the actual current membership, right now, maybe, but for the future size, position and effectiveness of his Union he is being a bad servant.
First, change happens, even, eventually, for a Luddite like Crow.
It is pointless protesting about keeping something that no one uses. Ticket offices and their staff are a total and complete waste of resources. Oyster and the internet has made them irrelevant.
Second, Crow's on-going battles with TfL mean that driverless trains will become inevitable. (They probably always were but Crow, almost single-handedly has ensured it will be sooner rather than later.) He is killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
Third, Crow's "strike first negotiate second" stance is very bad indeed for London's economy.

DamoNorthStand said:

Striking in general is something I dont agree with, so being the worst of the worst, Bob Crow doesnt sit easy with.

You do not agree with working people having the ability to strike?

Up the workers

I go back to a point I made earlier. If a Vauxhall worker goes on strike then apart from a few people getting their new cars late it is the employer that suffers from the lost production. Its a union-employer argument. In the case of Crowe, its the millions of customers that pay not the TfL management. Its the union against the people - not what unions are about, surely?