Inside the loutish and macho world of the RMT henchmen

Confidential papers seen by the Standard show allegations of violence and misconduct at the heart of the RMT, the militant union that has brought the Underground to a halt over the past two days.

The RMT's senior London organiser Bobby Law, one of the most influential figures in the union, is currently suspended from duty over allegations that he fought with another official outside a pub in Euston, close to the RMT's headquarters. Mr Law has also been charged with assaulting his girlfriend. He has not been found guilty of any criminal offence to date.

Meanwhile, the union's number three, assistant general secretary Pat Sikorski, was subject to an official complaint over his alleged conduct at the union's annual general meeting in June. The nature of the conduct is not clear; the union has always refused to discuss private union matters.

The documents seen by the Standard show concern at the highest level about the behaviour of RMT officials. A resolution passed by the union's personnel and constitution department on 4 May this year, following discussion of Mr Law's case, stated: "This union condemns physical violence and intimidation from any source." It added that the general secretary should "call a meeting of all branches and chairs in the London Transport Region for the national president and the Council of Executives [the National Executive] to try and get some unity among the London Transport Region".

Whatever the truth, the RMT certainly appears an old-fashioned trade union with a macho, heavy-drinking culture at its heart. Its central and pivotal figure remains Bob Crow, the RMT's general secretary, described by his followers as a jovial and pragmatic organiser who only wants the best for his members, and by his enemies as a hard-Left firebrand and old-fashioned union dinosaur hellbent on bringing capitalist Britain to its knees. The reality is probably somewhere between the two.

Certainly Mr Crow, who earns £63,000 a year and lives with his wife and children in a £320,000 home in Woodford Green, Essex, has been at the centre of his own controversies.

At the end of 2005, Mr Crow and another 13 of the RMT hierarchy were barred from the Somers Town Coffee House, a gastropub, for loutish behaviour. A witness said: "We knew they were RMT guys because they were wearing the logo on their fleeces and Bob Crow was definitely one of them.

"They started knocking back the pints and getting really rowdy. They were bothering customers with their sexist and vulgar language - every other word was the C-word."

Mr Crow, 46, laughed it off, claiming the management had merely objected to "our singing of seasonal songs".

Similarly, four years previously, on the eve of his election as RMT general secretary, he shrugged off a vicious New Year's Day beating at his home in Woodford Green by claiming rail bosses had "hired muscle" to have him " finished off ". Few believed him. The truth as to why two men should arrive on his doorstep in the middle of the night and beat him so badly with an iron bar that he lay unconscious in a pool of blood for two hours has never come to light.

One senior, moderate RMT official, who refused to be named - genuinely fearing a brick through the window or a beating - told the Standard: "A lot of rank-and-file members are absolutely fed up to the back teeth.

"The union is the last bastion of the On The Waterfront type of union. The rank and file feel pretty powerless to do anything because the hierarchy is such a closed shop within the union. They go out drinking together and play football together and the others just feel they cannot get anywhere. They are also getting frustrated over the number of times they are called out on strike. The RMT has very fierce pickets and they know they cannot cross the lines."

Indeed, while the current strike, on the face of it, appears to have overwhelming support from RMT members, a closer look reveals it is not quite so clear-cut. Of the RMT members who voted, 1,123 voted to strike - a whopping 98.3 per cent of those taking part in the ballot. Except only 51 per cent of members eligible to vote actually did so. Many may have been on holiday but others will have decided simply not to cast a ballot against the strike.

Research by the Standard shows around 13 strikes on the Underground and rail networks in the past five years called by the RMT. Of those, around seven have been on the London Underground. Since the privatisation of the national rail network, it is now practically impossible for a single union to bring the country to its knees because strike action has to be taken against each individual train operator. The Underground,however, is a soft target that can be brought to a standstill in hours.

This time around, activists alarmed at the collapse of Metronet, the private company with the contract to maintain most of the Tube network, demanded guarantees over their future jobs, working conditions and pensions from the company's administrator. Mr Crow had complained that London Underground Limited, managed by the tough American Tim O'Toole, had refused to negotiate a way out. Certainly, there has been a suggestion that Mr O'Toole, recruited four years ago by Mayor Ken Livingstone to run the Tube, has had enough and decided this will be the strike to break the union - just as Arthur Scargill's National Union of Mineworkers was destroyed by its own national strike in the mid-Eighties.

Others say Mr Crow, born in Shadwell, is too wily to get caught out like Mr Scargill, whom he fell out with having helped to set up the now defunct Socialist Labour Party.

One commentator says: "Inevitably Bob Crow is portrayed as a far-Left Trotsky nutter. His politics are pretty hard-Left but he is actually a pragmatist. He wants to get as much as he possibly can for his members and will take industrial action to get it. He drives a hard bargain but in the end you know you can get a deal with him.

"To a middle-class audience he looks and sounds like a working-class yobbo but he is not stupid and he makes decisions based on how far he can take it."

Mr Crow does not make those decisions alone.

His right-hand man is nominally Mick Cash, the senior assistant general secretary who was elected his deputy in the last round of RMT elections at which Mr Crow was returned unopposed. But Mr Cash is a conventional Labour supporter who, according to insiders, is not in the RMT leadership loop.

Much more clout is given to Pat Sikorski, the assistant general secretary, who was once sacked in 1993 for allegedly threatening a manager but later reinstated when colleagues voted for a 24-hour walkout.

Mr Sikorski, a tall slim man, is described by one commentator as a "figure in the shadows", rarely seen but who quietly pulls the strings. Yet a document seen by the Standard shows he has been subject to a complaint in recent months. The document, dated 9 July, states that an unnamed union official "received a complaint from London Underground Limited engineering branch on behalf of... a delegate to the AGM regarding the alleged conduct of AGS Pat Sikorski at a social evening appertaining to the AGM. I have instructed assistant general secretary Mick Cash to conduct an inquiry and to place his findings in front of you as soon as possible."

The Standard is not aware of the outcome but Mr Sikorski has vigorously denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Sikorski is said to be close to Mr Law, the London regional organiser, who was arrested by Essex police on 24 August last year for alleged assault on his partner, a claim he has vehemently denied. Mr Law, a divorced father of one, is understood to deny all charges. Wind the clock forward another seven months and it is claimed that Mr Law got into a fight with another union official, Neil Cochrane, outside a pub in Euston in March. Again, documents seen by the Standard reveal "alleged assaults involving stations functional council representative Neil Cochrane and regional organiser Bobby Law".

The personnel and constitution department report of 4 May concluded: "We recommend that Bro Cochrane is charged with fighting and assaulting another member... Further we recommend that Bro Law is charged with fighting and assaulting another member.

"The general secretary to hold the disciplinary hearings, to be held using natural justice and the disciplinary steps of Acas procedures. Bro Cochrane and Bro Law to remain suspended until further notice, Bro Law on full pay."

It is understood Mr Law remains at home in Loughton and has not had to travel to central London to attend a picket line. How many of London's commuters will have wished they too could have simply stayed at home.