Mick Lynch is back at it. The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union leader has attacked the government as rail workers go on strike. Lynch accused the government of wasting millions on a ‘futile war’ with the unions.
Lynch wrote a withering letter to the government over their conduct:
There is further strike action on the railways on Friday because workers, passengers and taxpayers are being asked to pay the price for the government’s disastrous mismanagement of the economy and public transport.
As ever, he joined picketing workers on the frontline:
👋 RMT members are again back on the picket lines today in defence of their jobs, pay and conditions.
General Secretary Mick Lynch joins @RMTunion members at Euston this morning.#RailStrikes pic.twitter.com/xVZKRovuoE— RMT (@RMTunion) June 2, 2023
Tory chaos
In his letter to the government, Lynch put the blame firmly on the Tories:
Rather than deliver a plan to improve public transport and the economy, we have seen three Prime Ministers preside over a year of chaos since the first strike action in June 2022.
He also pointed out that in other nations in the union, there had been less antagonism. Mainly because the English Tories were viciously anti-worker:
In contrast, there is no strike action on railways controlled by the Scottish and Welsh governments because these governments have adopted a fair and less ideological approach to industrial relations.
Elsewhere, Lynch ran rings around an interviewer with typical style:
🎥 "We don't want to ruin people attending Beyoncé, the FA Cup, or anything else."
RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch talking about today's #RailStrikes pic.twitter.com/fjMub5yX9l— RMT (@RMTunion) June 2, 2023
Futile war
The Tories have been waging a futile war against workers, Lynch said. And the cost was being borne by the taxpayer:
Instead of working to end the dispute, amidst a cost-of-living crisis it appears to have no idea how to tackle, the UK government has spent the last year squandering billions of pounds on a futile war against the rail unions, all in the name of delivering reforms that passengers do not want.
Lynch even put a figure on it:
The cumulative cost of this disastrous strategy is now estimated at £5 billion.
And the RMT leader spelt it out in another press interview. If it wasn’t for the Tories’ anti-worker views, the issue could be settled in days:
"If I had the chance to negotiate just with the employers, we could get a settlement to this dispute in a matter of days. The fact is the govt is vetoing a settlement"
Mick Lynch from the@RMTunion explaining the dispute isnt just about pay, & that the govt is blocking a deal pic.twitter.com/PKfzC13Tnf
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) June 2, 2023
Workers’ success
Speaking at a picket at London’s Euston Station, Lynch said the workers had enjoyed a lot of success against the bosses:
We’ve pushed them [rail bosses] back on all the stuff they wanted to do – they wanted to make thousands of our people redundant, they wanted to shut every booking office in Britain, restructure our engineering workers, [and] cut the catering service.
However, he added:
What we haven’t got is a pay deal, we haven’t got any guarantees on our members’ futures, but we have stopped them doing the worst aspects of their proposals and their ideas.
And in another media interview as the strikes launched, the union leader made a fool of a presenter who suggested an app could do the job of rail workers:
"Its no good having an app when you've got a drunken antisocial incident on a station at night when women are going home from shift work.. an app is no good to you if you're in a wheelchair & need to board a train with a big gap [between train & platform]@RMTunion's Mick Lynch pic.twitter.com/05XY2k9bwo
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) June 2, 2023
Once again, Lynch and the RMT are leading the way for working people. With the Labour Party more concerned with flopping about uselessly and draping itself in the Union Jack, it’s down to organised workers to fight for what they need.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Endim8, cropped to 1910 x 1000, licenced under CC BY-SA 4.0.
