40 Facts About Bob Crow

1.

Robert Crow was an English trade union leader who served as the General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers from 2002 until his death in 2014.

2.

Bob Crow was a member of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress.

3.

Bob Crow joined London Transport in 1977 and soon became involved in trade unionism.

4.

Bob Crow was regarded as part of the Awkward Squad, a loose grouping of left-wing union leaders who came to power in a series of electoral victories beginning in 2002.

5.

Bob Crow's father was a docker who taught him to read both the Morning Star and the Financial Times, but to disbelieve everything in the latter.

6.

Bob Crow's father was a lifelong member of the Transport and General Workers Union.

7.

Bob Crow left school at 16 and joined London Transport, where he became involved in union politics.

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8.

In 1991, he became assistant general secretary, and on 14 February 2002, he membership elected Bob Crow to succeed Jimmy Knapp as general secretary.

9.

Six weeks earlier on 1 January 2002, Bob Crow was attacked outside his home by two men wielding an iron bar.

10.

Bob Crow speculated that he was the victim of hired employer muscle, although it is possible, according to The Guardian, that the culprits were members of far right activist groups who were active in Dagenham at the time.

11.

Bob Crow was a member of the General Council of the Trade Union Congress.

12.

Bob Crow kept a bust of communist leader Vladimir Lenin in his office.

13.

Bob Crow rejected the argument that Scargill was responsible for the defeats of the miners and the union movement more generally.

14.

Bob Crow was a founding member of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition for several years until his death.

15.

Bob Crow was an outspoken critic of Tony Blair, who "squandered a massive landslide from an electorate hungry for change, poured billions of public pounds into private pockets and accelerated the growing gap between rich and poor".

16.

Bob Crow deemed the policies implemented by Blair's New Labour project to be "near enough identical" to those of the Conservatives.

17.

In 2013, Bob Crow accused then Labour leader Ed Miliband of showing unions contempt.

18.

Bob Crow again called on trade unions to break ties with Labour and create a new party to challenge the "anti-worker" agenda of the mainstream political parties.

19.

Bob Crow was criticised by RMT members on the right of his position; Crow repeatedly championed the cause of the lowest-paid workers, such as cleaners, whose jobs were often outsourced to separate companies.

20.

In London, where Bob Crow was a candidate, the party secured 17,758 votes, equating to the tenth largest vote share.

21.

When it became known that Bob Crow's wife had been appointed chief executive of the RMT credit union, the Milton Keynes RMT branch secretary stated he was filling posts with "henchmen".

22.

Bob Crow responded that his wife was the only applicant for the position, and he had interviewed her for the role.

23.

Bob Crow died in the early hours of 11 March 2014 at Whipps Cross University Hospital after suffering an aneurysm and heart attack.

24.

Bob Crow advocated the UK to withdraw from the European Union.

25.

Bob Crow was known to be a fan of boxing, and in an interview from 2011, claimed to work out six days a week, and be able to bench-press 120 kilograms.

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26.

Bob Crow took a keen interest in the weather and owned a barometer, informing the press that if he had not become a trade unionist then he would have liked to have become a weather man.

27.

Bob Crow later entered a long-term relationship with Nicola Hoarau, with whom he had another daughter, Tanya.

28.

Bob Crow had a distinctive south-east accent described variously as Cockney or soft-spoken Essex.

29.

Bob Crow was often to be seen in the stands of Millwall FC in his trademark flat cap.

30.

Bob Crow lived in a three-bedroom council house in Woodford Green, eastern Greater London.

31.

Bob Crow played up to the caricature of himself created by the press, by, for example, describing bankers as greedy "spivs".

32.

Bob Crow was once asked by a journalist from the Financial Times how he would feel if his children had chosen careers in banking.

33.

Bob Crow responded that he was happy for them to live their lives.

34.

Bob Crow revealed that his brother was a stockbroker but that he was more concerned about the fact his brother supported Arsenal FC.

35.

In 2011, lawyers acting for Bob Crow wrote to the Metropolitan Police asking for any evidence or information that they may have uncovered in respect of the News International phone hacking scandal.

36.

Bob Crow had suspicions that "journalists may have had access to private information about my movements and my union's activities that date back to the year 2000".

37.

However, Bob Crow was regularly criticised by both the right and the centre-left.

38.

Bob Crow did what he was elected to do, was not afraid of controversy and was always out supporting his members across the country.

39.

Bob Crow fought tirelessly for his beliefs and for his members.

40.

The Bob Crow Brigade is a group of volunteers from the UK and the Republic of Ireland fighting as part of the International Freedom Battalion.