Bob Crow died yesterday (11th March 2014), at the age of 52. Unexpectedly, of course. What everyone knows about Bob is that he was a fighter. He fought for his members, his class, and the railways. What not so many people have mentioned is that he fought for the planet too. In one way, it's simple - fighting for the railways is fighting against climate change and for the future of the planet. And railway jobs are climate jobs.

But Bob did something else as well, Five years ago, on behalf of the Campaign against Climate Change, I spend most of a summer on the Isle of Wight helping workers there occupy their factory. Vestas owned that factory, and it was the only one in Britain making blades for wind turbines. The workers were very clear - they were fighting for their jobs, their community, and their planet. Only a few of them managed to get into the factory to sit in. But hundreds stood outside silently to show solidarity, and marched noisily through their community.

None of them were in a union when the occupation started. But Bob Crow came down to the island swiftly, and stood outside the factory with a bullhorn, and invited them to join his union, and they did. 

We didn't win. But we fought, as many will fight again, and as Bob fought all his life.

Jonathan Neale is an author and academic, a member of the Campaign against Climate Change steering group and is currently working on an updated version of the One Million Climate Jobs pamphlet for the Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union Group.

Read more about the Trade Union Group and how your union can support the fight against climate change.