A member of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union’s (RMT) executive committee was criticised after posting social media messages and holiday photographs while London Underground workers staged a five-day strike that left many commuters struggling to travel across the capital.
Daniel Gibbons, who represents the union’s South East branch, shared a clip of BBC Politics Live on Facebook and wrote: “Listen to this person so eloquently talk absolute bollocks. It must be a special gift to be that dense. Solidarity to the LUL and DLR RMT members.” In several posts, he posted images of himself at an airport and on holiday in Majorca, including a photograph of him floating in a swimming pool.
Those posts drew complaints from London residents affected by the stoppage. One Welling resident told local media that the posts showed a lack of consideration for people whose journeys were disrupted by the industrial action. A friend who said they were stuck on a bus replied to one of Gibbons’s airport photographs; Gibbons’s response, according to screenshots circulated online, reiterated his support for London Underground and Docklands Light Railway RMT members.
The dispute centres on pay and working hours. The RMT rejected a 3.4% pay offer and is campaigning for changes to its members’ 35-hour working week, a proposal Transport for London (TfL) has said it cannot afford. The strikes brought large parts of the Underground network to a halt and forced many to rely on buses, taxis and overground services.
Union officials said the membership’s grievances remain the focus of negotiations. An RMT spokesman said Gibbons “is seconded to our full time executive through our democratic processes. He has holiday entitlements like any other worker and this bears no relation to our industrial relations dispute on TfL. He is not a spokesperson for the union and we do not condone abuse of any kind.”
Gibbons is a local RMT official from Welling in Kent who sits on the union’s executive committee. The posts were made public as talks between the union and TfL were set to resume on Wednesday, according to union and transport sources.
TfL has repeatedly argued a shorter working week would increase costs and said previously that any pay settlement must be affordable within existing budgets. RMT leaders have said their members deserve improved pay and conditions and that industrial action is a last resort after offers they deemed insufficient.
Commuters and local representatives described frustration at the timing of the social media posts while the dispute continued, saying such images risked undermining public sympathy for the union’s position. The union reiterated that individual members have the right to take annual leave and that Gibbons was not speaking on behalf of RMT policy when he posted the comments.
Negotiations are expected to continue as both sides weigh pay demands, working-hour proposals and the operational impact on London’s transport network. The outcome of the talks will determine whether further strike action is called or a settlement is reached.