"In the blue corner, we have the Prime Minister of Great Britain and in the Red Corner we have the Leader of the RMT - Father Christmas"
Now you may never have viewed Bob Crow, Leader of the RMT as Father Christmas, but I have it on good authority that David Cameron and the rest of his Tory mates do. You see, Mr Crow is the one trades union leader they can't beat. He's the only one left who has the country by the short and curlies.
You may think that this is a contradiction, but not at all. You see most of the leaders of trades unions are completely useless. They have no stomach for a fight and no stomach for a bit of public hostility. They earn huge wage packets and they really don't want to lose these. Bob Crow doesn't care if we all hate him. It's not his job to be popular, it's his job to deliver nice big pay awards to his members and great terms and conditions.
Now with all of the rest of the trades unions leaders being a bunch of pussies, how can David Cameron possibly justify the big stick of even more Union bashing? It's quite simple, pick a fight with Bob Crow, wait until middle England squeals, then give in. You then say "never again" and pass a whole load of union bashing laws, which does nothing about Mr Crow and his band of merry men, but allows you further castrate the public service unions at a time of public sector cuts. You see ultimately Cameron knows that Crow and his mob are worth having around. They provide the excuse to bash the poorly paid members of Unions such as Unison, who they really want to sack. Even though the leadership of this union are at time nigh on useless, Cameron is still scared of their membership. This is because the members do many of the things which makes us a decent caring society. Cameron can only bash them if he finds a subterfuge. He needs a bogeyman, which is why Bob Crow is Santa Claus.
So what am I saying? Am I saying "get rid of Bob Crow?". Nope that is a decision for the members of the RMT and they like him, he brings home the bacon. What I'm saying is when the anti union rhetoric is ramped up, remember who the real targets are and don't be fooled. Oh and remember this, the country isn't broke because of unions, Bob Crow or public sector workers, it's broke because of greedy bankers who were Tories to a man.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMany people think Bob Crow is a firebrand, but some of his members call him: Bob Crow, the union leader who has called off more strikes than any other!
ReplyDeleteA lot of the criticism of Crow in the press just comes down to plain snobbery.
You might have added Crow to your list of union leaders who earn a lot more than their members. Of course, when the right wing press mention this, they are doing it for anti-union purposes.
But it is still an issue that union members need to take up. Their 'leaders' should not earn more than they do on average, and they should be far more accountable to members.
In many unions, too much power is wielded as well by unelected officials.
The government is looking at banning strikes where the turnout is 'too low', eg, ballots for action would only be legal if, say, 50% of the eligible membership had voted for it, rather than 50% of those voting.
"Tory Troll" blogger Adam Bienkov has a good post about this in relation to Boris Johnson, pointing out how the same rules that Johnson is advocating for unions if applied to his own measures would invalidate most of them.
Vicki,
ReplyDeleteI read the Tory Troll post and despaired. I don't know if I completely failed to get what I was trying to say across here, but am I the only one who gets it? Bob Crow isn't the bloke who got the country in a mess, it's Tory bankers who earn millions.
I just can't understand why good commentaters such as Adam have missed the elephant in the room, which is that the Tories are just looking for an excuse for Union bashing. Boris & Cameron are ex Eton Bullingdon club members and they are bright guys. None of this is an accident.
I wasn't criticising Bob Crow (although I think he's paid too much). I was saying he's one of the few effective Union Leaders. I don't like Tube strikes any more than any one else, but on Thameslink the worst problems are caused by crap management. It just never occurs to people that when bad management leads to trains being cancelled the bogeyman is the fat cats who have milked the system.