Bob Crow

The death of the union leader Bob Crow has made front page news and rightly so. He seemed at times to be a caricature of an an age where unionism was represented by men from the shop floor who had worked their way into a leadership role but retained their working class roots. There were parliamentarians in the same mould, some of the best people in Clement Attlee's, post war government were from the shop floor and had not been enticed by the mahogany of the boardroom to forget what they were there to do. To represent the interests of there electorate. Oh if only the people making up the benches of Parliament today had even an inkling of that concept. 

Bob Crow was a big man in many ways. He was not afraid to be himself and, at all times to remember who put him there around the table negotiating with the powerful. His vision was simple. A living wage, proper working conditions and some sort of security for each of his members. 

Our society has been fed with a diet of gloom and doom about the global society, how we are but pawns in a larger game and can no longer expect to keep pace with the world unless we become more like the Asian who sadly seem, through poverty and numbers willing to work 14 hours a day for a pittance just to say alive. 

Bob Crow would have none of this and year on year secured wage increases for the men working on the underground. Of course he couldn't match the banking industry or the boardroom increases but they knew they were dealing with a man of his word and the loyalty of his members when push came to shove. Thatcher emasculated the miners with the strong arm tactics of the police, some say the army in police clothing. The pits closed and we now wait to see if Russia will keep us supplied with gas, what a stupid position to be in. Its as if the lunatic asylum had been making the decisions, lets choose our long standing enemy and give him the keys to the castle. 

Bob Crow was asking for a fair deal for the men and women who run this mammoth transport system. It's often trotted out the importance and the losses when the tube members go on strike. If the importance of the Tube is such then surely the people running the thing have to have a part of that value, they have to be worth something. 

Its the question of the Bankers Bonus all over again. We are told they have to be paid in the millions because they are worth it, look at the investment earnings to the country. Well as they travel to Canary Wharf in their Bentley's then the thousands of workers, who keep the lights burning for these Masters of the Universe to play their crooked game flood in on the transport system and are needed, just as the train operative is needed each playing a part and each entitled to a piece of the pie !!!