14
Tube union leader Bob
Crow dies of heart attack
March 2014
The Left-winger, regarded by many as
Britain’s most effective trade union leader,
was taken to Whipps Cross hospital in Leytonstone at about 7am.
Medical staff spent an hour trying to save him
but he had suffered critical damage as a result
of an aneurysm and could not be revived.
His death at the age of 52 shocked and saddened friends and opponents alike.
He leaves a partner and four children.
Crow’s union represents Tube and rail workers and seafarers.
Mayor Boris Johnson said: “Bob Crow was a
fighter and a man of character. Whatever our
political differences, and there were many, this
is tragic news. Bob fought tirelessly for his beliefs and his members.”
Ken Livingstone said: “His members are one
of the few groups of working class people who
have still got well paid jobs, and a lot of that is
down to him.”
The Rail, Maritime and Transport union headquarters in central London was closed for the
day and stunned staff were sent home.
A statement on the RMT union’s website said:
“It is with the deepest regret that RMT has to
confirm that our general secretary Bob Crow
sadly passed away in the early hours of yesterday morning. The union’s offices will be
closed for the rest of the day and the union
will make further announcements in due
course.”
Among Crow’s controversial successes, he negotiated Tube workers a bonus for working
will die in one.”
Born in Shadwell, East London, Crow left his
secondary modern at 16 and became an apprentice track worker for London Underground. He soon took up union activity,
becoming a local representative for the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) at 20. By
then he was already highly regarded by NUR
boss Jimmy Knapp.
He even joined a strike a day after returning
from his honeymoon in 1982. “I don’t shirk
from taking industrial action,” he once said.
A card carrying member of the Communist
Party for much of his life, Crow also joined
Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party but
belonged to no party in recent years. He was a
bitter critic of Tony Blair and the modern
Labour Party, believing they had abandoned
the working classes.
A lifelong follower of Millwall FC, he confessed that if he had not been a union official
he would have liked to have been a footballer
or a weather expert.
Crow maintained he wanted to do the “very
best” for his members, wherever they worked
and whichever political party they belonged
to, saying: “I will be the captain, steering the
ship, but the members will make all the decisions.”
Close friend and ally Manuel Cortes, general
secretary of the TSSA union, said: “Bob Crow
was admired by his members and feared by his
employers which is exactly how he liked it.”
Labour leader Ed Miliband said Crow was a
major figure who was loved and deeply respected by his members. “He did what he was
elected to do, was not afraid of controversy
and was always out supporting his members,”
he said.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin
called him “a passionate voice for safety” and
always “very straight” in his dealings with the
government. SOURCE London Evening Standard/London
bris in the South China Sea. Hishammuddin
Hussein said the images were not connected to
Flight MH370's disappearance.
He said the Chinese embassy in Kuala Lumpur
had told Malaysian authorities that the release
of the pictures was a "mistake". But Chinese
state TV said a warship was continuing to
search for the debris and suggested that
Malaysia had been unable to analyse the pictures properly. Meanwhile, a Chinese research
institute on Friday said it had found evidence
of a "sea floor event" some 90 minutes after
the plane disappeared. The seismology research group at the University of Science and
Technology of China said it happened 116 km
north-east of the last point of contact of the
plane, in an area not known for seismic activity, according to state media. The research
group said the vibrations could have been
caused by the plane plunging into the sea. Marine geologist Dave Long from the British Geological Survey told the BBC that the energy
released by a plane hitting the ocean would be
rapidly dissipated in the water. He said any device picking up such small movements would
have to be very sensitive and incredibly close
to the impact, meaning that search teams
would now know exactly where to look for the
debris. SOURCE and photo- Copyrighted by
bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-
RMT (National Union of
Rail, Maritime and Tr