Taxpayer fury: Union bosses salaries SOAR - ‘Red barons playing working class warriors’

BRITAIN’S top-earning trade union bosses are enjoying a pay bonanza after pocketing an average of £145,000 last year - way up on last year.

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A Taxpayers’ Alliance report has revealed union bosses’ average salaries rose 10 per cent on the previous year. The paper from the Taxpayers’ Alliance said the average remuneration of the 30 trade union leaders earning over £100,000 rose from £131,198 to £144,168 between 2017 and 2018.

Duncan Simpson, research director at the alliance, told The Times: “Taxpayers are tired of these red barons, taking home massive taxpayer-backed salaries while playing class warriors against prosperity.”

The paper revealed Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, had a gross pay package of £167,604 in 2018.

Some of the highest paid bosses were those leading professional trades union in the medical and education sectors.

Chaand Nagpaul, chairman and general secretary of the British Medical Association, the doctors’ trade union, took home £193,000.

Francis O'Grady general secretary of the Trades Union Congress

Francis O'Grady general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (Image: GETTY)

Mick Cash general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers

Mick Cash general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (Image: GETTY)

This is seven times the £27,100 salary of a foundation first year doctor in the NHS.

Meanwhile the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers general secretary Mick Cash took home £162,004 last year.

This extortionate salary comes despite passengers using Southern, Govia Thameslink, Merseyrail train lines and the London Underground suffering in recent years from the industrial action by the RMT.

Most recently the South Western network which services Britain’s busiest station Waterloo was crippled by week-long walkouts.

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Speaking about the pay package, Conservative MP Jack Brereton, a member of parliament’s Transport Committee, told The Telegraph: “It’s absolutely obscene.

“To hold fare payers to ransom is totally unacceptable,” he said, adding that union bosses pay “Is setting a dangerous precedent.”

Last month the RMT attacked the owners of trains and carriages as “rail fat cats” for paying out £1.2bn to shareholders.

Matthew Lesh of think-tank Adam Smith Institute told The Telegraph: “Mick Cash’s complaining about private sector profits are hypocritical in face of his own fat cat salary, benefits and raise.

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Mick Cash general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers

Mick Cash general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (Image: GETTY)

Francis O'Grady general secretary of the Trades Union Congress

Francis O'Grady general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (Image: GETTY)

“Every time the RMT complains about higher train fares we should remember that these are needed to fund the RMT membership dues of Mick’s members for his salary.”

Duncan Simpson, research director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, told The Telegraph: “Union barons at the RMT are clearly taking the mick with taxpayers' cash.

“Taxpayers are tired of these red barons, bringing home massive salaries while playing class warriors against capitalism.

“With a raft of generous perks, plus employers' national insurance on top of these figures, union officials are doing very well indeed while commuters suffer with strikes.”

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