Aww sorry Cologne. Its sad... 52 is very young to pass away. 

I didn't hear he was even ill - so i'm guessing it was something sudden?

I was thinking mebbe heart attack although to be fair we don't know what state of health he was in 

I read he'd had an aneurism followed by a massive heart attack.

both of which would be sudden 

Yes. It said medics worked on him for an hour, but weren't able to revive him.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...of-the-RMT-dies.html

Very sad for his family  

It's ironic really, his heart went on strike.

Sad for his family yes, but the guy was an enemy to all commuters across the country.

and the daily mail was only having a dig at him in todays issue

littlejohn is probably crying tears of joy by now

No one wished him dead but he was a divisive character.

im not saying they wished him dead!

im just commenting on how much they disliked him

Shame the customers came last hey.

There is nothing wrong with disliking union leaders who hold the general public up to ransom to get what they want.

The vast majority of Londoners hated him for what he was doing.

RIP Bob.

One of few 'old fashioned' men 'of the left' and a trade unionist who unapologetically believed in socialism and the interests and welfare of workers. 

I didn't agree with everything he did, but it was clear when he spoke that he understood and found distasteful, the way capitalism works, who it works for and the hypocrisy of the right wing vested interests.  He often put careerist soft right consensus politicians, supposedly of the left, to shame.

RIP Bob!

Don't they come last to the privatised railway cartels too!

RIP, Bob

How tragic. I wonder how much stress played a part? Not an easy job - sad for his family ........far too young to die.

Quite.

Too much still to do Bob. 

But thanks for being such a champion for those you represented but also for those you didn't. 

There are few left who will be so determined to fight the fight you did.  

Well put 

Hmmm, poor taste. 

But more of an enemy than the shoddy, expensive, cancellation-happy, crappy services provided by the heavily-tax payer-subsidised rail franchises that were inflicted on us by John Major?

Found this image of the man. He's his own man here and all the better for it. 

Yep, one of the few remaining who believe that workers who actually toil to  deliver the service that customers pay for have a right to a piece of the action, not just a distant and inconsequential fifth after fatcats, shareholders, bent politicians and customers.

I fear for the Unions now. I can't think of a replacement for him.

It really is a shame, not only that he died too young, but all that many people can see is that he caused inconvenience to some workers in London.

What a weak kneed namby pamby whingeing lot we have become.

All politicians could learn a  great deal from Bob Crow, integrity,commitment  and passion to name a few, all of which have been lost to our self serving,smug characterless ,greedy representatives.

But carry on voting for them,at least they haven't made you 10 minutes late for work so you'll have to forgo your morning Costa now and then.

Living a life in the centre of so many bitter and angry arguments cannot be good for anyone.

Researchers say there are links between anger and agression and heart attack/cnacer

I take great offence at this generalisation. I worked in London yrs ago. .for 20 yrs. .there were no such things as Costa but that is beside the point.

on Tube strike days I had to get up even earlier and make sure I had a change of clothes in case is was a rainy day as is usually was.. then I had to trek miles form Nth London where my train got in, to the City or SE London or further most times and be on time too, then do a full days work and trek back to get my train home. My usual travel time on non strike days was 4 hrs in total.. on top of a hard days work.. . on strike days I felt half the time I may as well just sleep at my desk as there was no point going home as I'd be starting out my trek back to work within an hour or two of getting in..

At that time I worked in a bank, long before the day's of loads of ATM's and debit cards, and if we closed the doors them union people would soon be complaining they couldn't cash their chqs or set up their standing orders or get an overdraft or a loan or a zillion of the things that weren't centralised back then and done in Branch..

After days and sometimes weeks of having to travel to work like that, they'd get what they wanted and our gift was a bluddy great hike in travel costs yet again..  and a measly small annual pay increase, if we were lucky, that never covered the travel expense increases.. 

My favourite one was a strike yrs ago cos 2 people got fired as they fell asleep on the job. .. .I mean ffs! 

So yeah sorry for his family and all that but no great loss as far as unions and my experience of them are concerned. . 

Ok point taken Olls, it wasn't 10 minutes , it was 4 hours, and there was no coffee.

But Bob Crow's strikes, well those of his union members wasn't,. 20 years ago either.

There are precious few alternatives left in the face of rampant capitalism where everything is sacrificed  to the god profit.

Zero hours contracts,minimum wages - the future's not looking too bright for many but still we whinge on about 'inconvenience'

Jackson the 4 hrs was the normal daily travelling time for me. .on strike days it was 6 hrs or more travelling time. . and employers never took the 'tubes/trains etc were on strike' as an excuse for being late so you had to ensure you were on time too...

I do accept nowadays there are different employment conditions that warrant looking at..  but I also feel that some businesses were priced out of the market yrs ago by workers demanding all sorts so that their products ended up costing too much to produce in the end to be viable in an open market. Businesses closed, jobs were lost, no one won.

I used to work with a guy that had previously worked in a factory. He left in the end as the unions had negotiated a rate of x amount of production per day for x amount of money..  Piece/peace? work I think they called it, he got hauled over the coals by the union rep cos he was just sitting working thru his set hours and tripled the amount he was supposed to have produced for the day.. he got told to not do that anymore or they'd all be expected to work like that, which wasn't even fast as he was learning the job!  He thought sod that I'm off ... I think he muttered lazy buggers under his breath as he left..

Capitalism breeds employment, or so I thought. If you don't have entrepreneurs starting up businesses you don't have jobs created. Or maybe my idea of capitalism is different to yours. I do accept there is good and bad on both sides but if you don't have investors in businesses, granted they are looking for profit as a return, you have no jobs 

Perhaps you might have benefitted from belonging to a Union. Attitudes as you describe are somewhat unreasonable - sometimes a 'collective voice' and a representative is needed to challenge unreasonable attitudes.

Never in a million yrs ..  I belonged to the Staff association, that was enough for me. . my experience of all things unions is more often than not that they made my life a misery...

and yes we were expected to be on time.. but if we were late thru no fault of our own and it was not a regular thing we would maybe get a look if all the others had made it in, but no further action..  I think a lot of people think their job description is what they decide it is not what the employer decides. .even tho they are the ones paying their wages..

When unions first came about I fully understand they were needed then, after that I think they grew far too big for their boots and were no more than a pain in the arse holding the country to ransom half the time ..

I'm all for fighting for real injustices but most of the time they were fighting for more and more money that was never there to start with. . but as I say my opinion is based on my experience of how they affected me trying to go about my daily working life and is mainly from back in the mid 70's and 80's.. I can't help the way I feel about them and realise I am probably in a minority and some of my feelings are based on growing up knowing my fathers views which was he was relieved to have survived the war and find a country to take him in afterwards and working and being thankful for what he got. .

I understand that your particular experience with Unions ma not have been good but I think it's a bit narrow minded to just state point blank that 'Unions are bad news'. 

In a situation as you described I think someone representing you would have been beneficial. I remember back in 'those days' that a friend of mine (and several of her colleagues) were experiencing real difficulties. The Unions managed to negotiate a temporary mode of transport (picking up at a designated spot) that eased a lot of their problems. It's common sense really and a win win situation. I don't think she would have achieved this on her own - it needed a collective voice and a representative to negotiate.

I do think that Trade Unions have been badly represented/portrayed over the years in the media - they have been depicted as anarchists and simply hell bent on bringing chaos and disruption. Common sense tells us surely that thiis is quite ridiculous. A union is there to ensure fair and safe working conditions for it's members (and non members).

things is Soozy I think getting to work on time is an expected part of employment . . I  don't consider me or my fellow workers were treated badly.. in fact we weren't. .there were rules of employment..  if someone was consistently late they would be dealt with and rightly so.. my mention of not using a strike as an excuse for being late was more in response to Jackson going on about 'namby pamby'  people moaning about being 10 mins late because of a strike etc so they'd have to forego their coffee.. not that I've even seen a Costa  whatever that is...

When you say in my situation having someone representing the workers on our points I see that as pathetic and being namby pamby. . nothing worth creating a huge fuss about... it's was a job with rules that you had to be at work on time.. we weren't flayed if we were late when some  people caused havoc to make it harder for us but it was noted if we didn't at least make an effort.. and rightly so..

I think your description of what a union is there for is just them being just as delusional about their roles as a Government [any government] is when saying it is there for the people. .  both are there for what they can get for themselves and no one else..  the original reasons they were created are all long since lost... huge generalisation I know   but I just hate anything union and it's the unions, well union leaders more like, that made me feel that way. . if they had been responsible about fighting their 'causes' in the past then I may have had a different opinion.. 

I am not against people getting together to fight for injustices I am against Union fat cats causing trouble left right and centre mostly for greed or power and not a lot else..

I've not even touched on the 'I think they are a bunch of commies' aspect. .and am not even going there.. I associate commies with having prevented my father from seeing what was left of his family until more than 20 yrs after the war ended, having not seen them since the war began so am none too happy with anything slightly commie.. and am so sad he didn't live long enough to see them fall..  

I think now I am a lot older and more cranky I can still listen to arguments for both sides and possibly change a long held opinion but on this particular one I can't seem to change at all so can only agree to disagree here..

Olly waffle waffle waffle. . 

sorry

Well let's hope all those people on zero hours contracts and minimum wage,manage to keep themselves and their  families  going.

The multinationals would quite like many more us to accept it.They'd be selling us air if they could find a profitable way to monitor our personal intake.

it was taking me an extra hour each way on top of my normal 2 hours each way but, that is beside the point,

I also said we were expected to get in on time or try to do so, which meant not leaving home at normal time and strolling in as and when. .  it meant leaving much earlier to allow for the miles of walking we then had to do.. exactly the same as the bosses would have been doing and, if they got themselves in on time even with all that extra hassle, then they rightly should expect their staff to do the same. . but I also said if we did get in a bit late there were no consequences other than maybe a mental note of well they didn't bother trying that hard.. and tbh there were a few who didn't bother trying and  if I were their boss I would have marked their cards as shirkers..  it shows a lack of commitment.. 

the resolving of those particular situations would be for the sods on strike to get back to work so we could all work without having to climb mount bleedin Everest to get there...  the only reason I even mentioned any of it was because of jackson's initial post about the namby pamby's moaning about being 10 minutes late cos of a tube strike and missing  their coffee comment, which I thought was insulting and offensive considering in my day it was nothing like that at all and pretty sure it isn't for those  nowadays either.. .

as for a go between if you had a beef you'd take it up with your manager, or theirs if that didn't work and so on.. as I said in the very long ago past unions had their place and negotiations on behalf of a huge workforce were needed, but to call a union rep in if you got told off for being late or any other reason is bluddy daft.. imo anyway

Jackson you are talking about now I am talking about the past and what happened then that colours how I feel as I do now.. which is to not want to touch a  Union with a bargepole..  it's just one of those things I am blinkered about, probably due to the utter misery they caused me when all I wanted to do was get on with my work..   am sure we all have some things we have strong feelings about and no amount of persuasion will make us change our minds.. Unions is my particular bug bear..

Can we leave it that, you lot are all for unions and I am not... please?