By Elliott West
“If you fight you won’t always win. But if you don’t fight you will always lose.”
Bob Crow
Introduction
Bob Crow was one of the most brilliant negotiators and orators, you could ever wish for. His punchy, no-nonsense approach was poetry in motion. A man who could run rings around a negotiating table, articulate, charismatic and someone passionate about getting the best deal for his members in any dispute. Yet in 2014, it was as if an iron brick fell out of the sky and landed on the trade union movement when we learnt that the RMT General Secretary had died from a suspected heart attack at the age of 52. A light went out that day that will always be dearly mourned, an irreplaceable powerhouse that never ceased to send seismic shockwaves through anything he touched. A man who had the words working class stamped in his DNA.
Yet beyond the iron fist, was a very humble man, well-read and able to speak to an audience without any notes. If you met him, he always remembered your face, the next time he saw you and would go out of his way to shake your hand. Bob had a generous nature and always did everything from the heart. He certainly wasn’t a bully and troublemaker as the right-wing press portrayed him as and he was probably one of the few General Secretaries that I saw walk everywhere, always accompanied by a flat cap and his trademark duffle bag. It didn’t matter how busy he was, if you called him, he would always make every effort to attend whatever you were asking him to do. Someone who had an encyclopedic filing cabinet in his head, primed and ready to be used.
Background
Bob Crow was born in Epping in 1961. His father was a docker and a highly influential role model in his life who taught him the values in life and how to see both sides of an argument, encouraging him to read the Morning Star and the Financial Times but to disbelieve the latter. His father was a lifelong member of the Transport and General Workers Union and his passion soon rubbed off on his son. Later moving to Hainault, Bob left school at the age of 16 and joined London Transport in 1977, doing a whole host of jobs, starting off making tea, track tree-felling and then track maintenance. A figure who quickly immersed himself in union activism, Crow soon became a National Union of Railwaymen representative in 1983 and a NUR national officer representing track workers in 1985.
Bob stood out from the crowd and quickly became one of the movers and shakers in the NUR union. A man who liked to move and shake socially too often found dancing to jazz-funk, soul and reggae music in various working men’s clubs and pubs across Essex and London. His time would come in 1990 when he succeeded Jimmy Knapp as General Secretary of the newly formed RMT, a merger of the NUR and the National Union of Seamen. An electric role that had followed a brutal attack on Crowe six weeks earlier outside his home when two men attacked him with an iron bar. An assault that was never proven who was behind it.
The Face
In his time as RMT General Secretary, Bob Crowe was never far from a microphone or television camera. He was the face of the RMT, a union that fought hard for its members with its functional negotiating teams spending many hours trying to thrash out a deal with often hostile management. Although the media perception was and is that the RMT takes industrial action at the drop of the hat, this is far from the truth. Strikes are only called when the bargaining tool is blunt and talks have run their course with the other side not prepared to make concessions.
Bob was often brought in to not only rally the members and educate the media with numerous television appearances but also as a king-maker, someone who could break the deadlock and broker a deal. I heard a story that during a dispute in the transport sector, a transport Managing Director met Bob in a London pub in an attempt to thrash out a deal After several drinks, Bob noticed that this manager was constantly on his mobile phone and not truly engaging in the conversation. Crowe then sent him to the bar to order another round and when he returned he was shocked to find his phone at the bottom of his pint glass. Turning to Bob with a shocked face, Bob replied “Now let’s talk”.
Bob was constantly attacked by the media for his salary, home, lifestyle and holidays but despite this constant media intrusion, Crowe always faced the music head-on and never shied to react to a headline. Bob wasn’t a Union Barron as some made him out to be, he was a man of the people who stood up to injustice in the workplace. A working-class man who saw the need to fight for workers in numerous sectors and wasn’t frightened to speak his mind. He was a titan and someone that even those who publicly appeared to hate him, secretly admired him. This was shown when he died with an outpouring of tributes especially from those who attacked him throughout his union career.
Bob’s Legacy
I often wonder what life would have been like had Bob Crow lived especially with this Cost of Living Crisis that we are experiencing and industrial action as a result. The current RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch worked closely with Bob and has made an impressive start with barnstorming interviews and keeping up the pressure on National Rail and London Underground disputes. Bob Crow left a pair of union shoes that remain empty, empty because Bob Crow was Bob Crow, a unique man who towered above company bosses and politicians. He is irreplaceable and speaks to anyone who knew well and they will always have a tear in their eye and a smile on their face. He was one of a kind and there isn’t a day where his name isn’t mentioned by someone. A man who had many industrial battles and often won. A Socialist with a capital S.
