Bob Crow would have appreciated the irony of his many tormentors mourning his death at the age of 52 on 11 March – he was more hurt than most realise by the press intrusion into his private life. Many are remembering him as a tireless fighter for members of his train drivers’ union and that is what he was.
During Crow’s time as RMT general secretary from 2002 onwards, the basic pay of a Tube driver rose to £46,000 plus perks and will reach £52,000 in 2015. As Ken Livingstone said on Sky News: “The only working-class people who still have well-paid jobs in London are [RMT] members.”
Though cursing Crow’s name as they squeezed on to overcrowded buses during the union’s strikes, many workers would have reflected that they could do with such a leader fighting their corner. There was no greater tribute to Crow’s efforts than the rise in RMT membership from 57,000 in 2002 to 77,000 today (making it the fastest-growing union) while others were in decline.
It is common now for politicians and columnists of all stripes to bemoan the widening gap between rich and poor and the fate of the “squeezed middle”. Fewer support the measures required to improve workers’ lot, including strengthening trade unions. The steep decline in union membership in recent decades cannot be separated from the living standards crisis. In 1981, 50 per cent of UK employees belonged to a union; today, 26 per cent do. The fall in membership has eroded workers’ collective bargaining power and wages have stagnated. Since 2003, long before the recession, 11 million low-to-middle-income earners have had no rise in earnings.
It is no coincidence that some of the most equal countries in the world are those in which union membership is highest. In Finland, 69 per cent of workers belong to a union; in Sweden, 68 per cent do; in Denmark, the figure is 67 per cent; in Norway, 55 per cent. Strong unions are a guarantor not just of social justice but also of economic efficiency. As an IMF report noted, the inevitable result of stagnant real wages is that “loans keep growing and therefore so does . . . the probability of a major crisis that . . . has severe implications for the real economy”.
There was a time when David Cameron sought co-operation, not confrontation with the unions. He became the first Conservative leader in more than a decade to meet the TUC general secretary and appointed a union emissary, the former Labour MEP Richard Balfe. But he soon reverted to Thatcherite type, refusing to rule out making Britain’s anti-strike laws – already the most draconian in the western world – even more restrictive. The next Conservative manifesto will probably include Boris Johnson’s proposal of a 50 per cent turnout threshold for votes on strikes (it is worth noting that just 38 per cent voted in the last London mayoral election). Crow rightly opposed this and every other policy that would limit the unions’ ability to fight for their members.
He may have been one of the greatest modern union leaders and a lifelong anti-fascist activist but it should not be forgotten that Crow was also a supporter of the death penalty and withdrawal from the EU and an apologist for Stalinism. In 2004, he led the disaffiliation of the RMT from Labour, the party it helped to found, and never returned despite Ed Miliband’s repudiation of New Labour.
Yet, in recognising the necessity of militancy to raise living standards, he served as an example to all.
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