The rail union has joined a body committed to making the very “pay freezes, cuts to safety and conditions” and “austerity” it claims publicly to oppose.
MICK LYNCH is no stranger to the sharp end of the class struggle.
The newly elected RMT general secretary was effectively starved out of the construction industry in the 1990s, a victim of the blacklisting that robbed so many decent trade unionists of their right to earn a living.
He is also a veteran of battles against the kind of right-wing gangster trade unionism that saw his former union – the notorious EETPU – kicked out of the TUC for sweetheart-dealing with some of the very bosses who were doing the blacklisting.
It was being forced out of construction that brought the west Londoner onto the railways and into RMT.
Sat 8 May 2021 02.00 EDT
Portraits of trade union leaders from a century ago, all stiff collars and waxed moustaches, gaze down from the boardroom wall of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union’s London headquarters. Staring back in a baggy black suit is the shaven-headed new general secretary, Mick Lynch, merrily denouncing the sellouts among them.
Lynch, 59, knows his history, good and bad, and is preparing for battle ahead, having already announced that the union is in dispute with Network Rail, the government-owned body that runs the railways, over cost-cutting plans. A national strike could come: “At the moment we are warming up our members … we fully expect to be involved in industrial disputes this year on the railway.”
UK: The National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers has elected Assistant General Secretary Mick Lynch as its next General Secretary. He beat three other candidates to succeed Mick Cash, who had announced his intention to step down last October.
Train conductors to strike on East Midlands Railway over inferior contracts
The Union has confirmed strike action involving 225 staff over three days
Updated
Train conductors to strike over safety concerns when working on electric trains
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Train conductors on Leicester services have been left with no choice but to strike later this month due to a dispute over contracts, says a union.