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Tube union leader Bob Crow has come under fire for taking a £10,000 pay increase while attacking fat cat salaries.
The 12 per cent rise pushed the pay package of the Rail Maritime and Transport union general secretary to more than £133,000 last year.
Mr Crow also claimed £9,989 in expenses and £2,376 in travel costs taking his total income to £145,548, according to figures published by the RMT. The union announced that its members had voted for industrial action in protest against job cuts.
Tube passengers now face a series of strikes over the bank holiday with the Transport Salaried Staffs Association due to announce its ballot result next week.
A spokesman for Boris Johnson said: “Anyone delivering public services in the current climate who thinks they deserve a double digit pay rise is not living in the real world.”
Senior staff at Transport for London, which is cutting 1,300 posts as part of a £5 billion savings drive, will see their pay frozen for a second year, and transport commissioner Peter Hendy and seven chief officers at TfL have rejected bonuses totalling about £500,000.
Transport bosses have raised the prospect of reforming strike laws to see off the threat of industrial action during the 2012 Olympics.
Transport Minister Norman Baker said: “Bob Crow talks about fairness but this self-styled man of the people should be judged by his actions.
“Crow seems more interested in feathering his own nest than working with Government to create an efficient cost effective rail service.”
The RMT defended Mr Crow's pay packet saying there was no case of double standards and that he is “worth every penny”.
A union spokesman said: “Bob Crow is one of the most successful trade union leaders of his generation with one of the fastest growing trade unions.
“His salary is nothing compared to the largesse shows in corporate boardrooms and to bankers that have brought the economy to its knees.”
Reader views (13)
I had hoped that the Brits were more intelligent in their behaviour, hopefully they will still prove to be so, compared to the Greeks with their civil unrest and the French strikes. For heavens sake we all have huge black holes to fill and people like Bob Crow calling for civil unrest are just idiotic. His actions will further penalise small and medium businesses who are the main hope for this country to get us out of the recession.
He is truly a hypocrite with his fat cat salary. I have just retired from teaching and earned less than a quarter of his salary and without teachers people like him wouldn't have a job - or perhaps in his case he would?!
He should listen to recorded broadcasts of people like Len Murray who was an intelligent man who did really care about the workers but he said that people should always talk and negotiate and not go for strikes far less civil unrest. Bob Crow is only out for his own ends.
I agree about the bankers, etc. but now is not the time to behave like a Bob Crow.
- Merran, Surrey, 17/10/2010 17:15
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What a cheek getting a extra £10.000 Pounds Bob Crow you are out of order cus.
- Terry Crow, Essex UK, 02/10/2010 19:23
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Hypocrisy at its finest.
- Maggie, London, 13/08/2010 11:48
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If British Industry and the Government treated our workers with fair pay normal working hours, and the respect that all people should have, people like Mr Crow wouldn't have a job, there are always two sides to every story, and the British government along with industry have been trying (40 years passed) to turn Britain into the 51 St. State of America, where no one has rights, but they want us to pay European taxes.
- Frederick, London, 13/08/2010 09:34
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I cannot believe this guy gets paid so much - this is 5 times the average wage of his "members" - shows that self interest rules wherever you are - Bob Crow fat cat
- Concerned, Scotland, 13/08/2010 07:41
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he seems to think he has the backing of a majority of railway workers, there are a majority, but they would like to see the back of him! It was reported that his rise had the backing of the members, well I've yet to find even one !
so out of touch with reality
- Jarred off Rail Worker, Essex, 12/08/2010 22:55
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Look at it from RMT members' perspective. Bob Crowe has defended their jobs and benefits successfully and won them better wages and conditions. If I worked in the London transport sector, I'd be happy to join the RMT and fork out the subscriptions - it would be money well spent. This £10k rise is effectively a performance-related increase - and a lot less than the kind of bonuses splashed out by publicly-owned banks to loss-making traders.
- Arfur Towcrate, Staffycher, 12/08/2010 18:28
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Andrew you are probably right she managed to close down the British Made Industry and turned us into a nation where banking was our main industry now whatever happened to that?
However Crowe is an idiot but a fairly rich idiot I'm sorry to say.
- Mike Melbourne, Bedford, 12/08/2010 17:21
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From his recent appearance on Question Time, it's obvious this man is an oaf.
Yet his income is in excess of £130,000 a year.
That's where my parents went wrong. Sending me to school to learn how to read, write and speak 'proper '.
If it wasn't for those drawbacks, I could be doing Crows ' job '.
Worry not, folks. He'll get caught out soon enough.
- Jargonaut, South London, 12/08/2010 16:13
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Oink!
- Paul, London, 12/08/2010 15:35
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Disgusting animal.
This kind of person is why there is no manufacturing, engineering, export or industrial base left in the UK.
Most of these "shop steward" loudmouths were hypocrites. I understand that workers should be protected from being exploited but the unions are nasty gangs run by greedy idiots, who created a "the country owes me a living" mentality which finished British industry..
Maggie Thatcher would deal with him very nicely if she was in power...
- Andrew, Tel Aviv, Israel, 12/08/2010 13:48
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Crow will be in the house of Lords of next!
What a "Cee U Next Tuesday".
- Champagne Socialist, Purley, 12/08/2010 13:44
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It's time the RMT got this pig's snout out of the trough!
- Mark, London, 12/08/2010 13:01
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