Mick Lynch

[KangFang]

Anyone else here loving his work?

The Labour percentage was pretty positive, it is at the level they would need to get a majority.

It seems the Brexit voters have stopped voting on Brexit lines for now, will that last?

I expect a horrible, nasty doubling down from the Tories to appeal to the Brexit voters, but they do risk alienating their liberal southern voters by opting for that route - Dominic Raab will hopefully be looking for a new job whenever the election.

Never forget the majority of Tory MP's support Johnson as he is 'the best they have'

I think support is quite a fluid term when it comes to the Conservative party and the individual MP's allegiances.

at least we got to what you’re reason are for disliking him

Then try and reconcile that with massive wage demands on the back of huge inflation which is in no small part due to said self-inflicted economic disaster.

hardly massive wage demands when they are under the rate of inflation. The economy is suffering due to the disparity in wealth spread. The less people you have with the larger % of wealth then the less well the economy will fare. There is only so much the super wealthy can spend and by squeezing the amount of disposable income the masses have the less they will spend which is when you end up with a recession. Low wages are a big part of that problem.

as for what Lynch was up to in 2016, by that I guess you’re eluding he voted Brexit, and still he stands by that vote today.

in 2016 Lynch wasn’t GS if the RMT so it’s not clear who the cronies are as he wasn’t in charge.

If they had given them a pay rise last year maybe they wouldn't be asking for as much now, ML was clear about this. Plus there is always an excuse not to pay their workers. Maybe the ones who voted for strike action are just fed up with excuses ?

Pleased with the local election results however this is not well done labour, it is a protest against Johnson

The 'opposition' needs to get some policies, tell people what they are and learn from Mike Lynch-

Speak clearly

Have a plan

Have a clear argument and don't keep criticising the others say what you will do

This is a protest vote

Great by-election news.

I think Mick Lynch pierces the formulaic pomposity of TV interviewers and foghorn panellists with knowledge and humour.

Patronising him and shouting at him really doesn’t work.

Maybe the ones who voted for strike action are just fed up with excuses ?

“The worst way you could do it is by insisting the fares go up by RPI ripping off the commuters, but you won’t give the workers RPI.
The fares go up by RPI every year. That’s the government regulations.
Last year, profits were made by the train operators – £500m out of that subsidy you gave went to those companies.
First Group and Go Ahead, who we’re negotiating with, are both subject to takeovers from private equity companies.
They’re going to be worth billions because they know you’re going to keep siphoning money from the public purse into private sector operators. Just as you’re doing health, education and care.”

£500 million excuses

Patronising him and shouting at him really doesn’t work Think this is key - he allows people to make their points... and then he points out quite quietly they are not correct.

I thought the bit with the Network Rail letter on QT yesterday was very interesting to watch, Lynch repeatedly said 'It doesn't say what you said it did' and I felt I could see the audience were really hearing him say that, we all know that the Tories just lie constantly. The lying goes well beyond Johnson - the whole government is lying constantly. The NHS, education, police, councils - all are being lied about. We can see with our own eyes things are not OK, and the government keeps telling us there is plenty to celebrate.

I don’t think the wage requests are unreasonable. An underlying premise is that workers who are full-time shouldn’t need to claim state benefits to live, especially not while the government is allowing private interests to profit from those companies.

Another premise is that workers should not be forced to work month after month of night shifts on these wages. That hugely disadvantages women struggling already with childcare.

I’m glad someone is saying these things in the open. These problems are political not personal. For women, the personal is political.

I'd rather have well lit , manned train stations and ticket offices for those that use the trains
Especially at night and when it gets dark early in winter. Safety is always an issue and cutting back on these things isn't a good move. It's only so the companies can save money on wages and have constant cut backs.
I don't think this is unreasonable, but the CEOs etc probably don't use the trains at night time so they don't see any problems with it I suppose.

I agree - this proposed change to unstaffed stations will make it much less safe to travel, somethng that affects women and disabled passengers disproportionately. Disabled passengers will find it even harder to access stations/trains at all. As ever these changes affect those with low incomes most as they are least likely to have a car. Young people will also be affected a lot, putting them off going to work on the train.

Stations will become more prone to antisocial behaviour. We really need a safe, staffed railway.

We definitely need stations to be staffed, yes. It is not ‘modernisation’ to make the railways more inaccessible to disabled people and to make them even more unsafe for women.

That's essentially what they've been trying to do recently. It's failed hard.

For the morning crowd, a reminder of what the strikes are actually about.

Hands up if you think this is a reasonable way to treat a workforce.

Interesting article in the Guardian today about Mick Lynch by Jeremy Gilbert, professor of cultural and political theory at the University of East London.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/23/mick-lynch-media-star-labour-rmt-leader-union-boss

... Lynch is a brilliant communicator and strategic thinker, as would be expected of the leader of a union whose cadres have long been noted for their acuity, intelligence and determination. But it is also because millions in Britain find it refreshing to hear a socialist perspective on current events articulated with clarity and conviction. Lynch puts the case for collective action with a precision and a lack of moralism that is both appealing and vanishingly rare. He also points out the harm done to workers and consumers by excess corporate profits: a blindingly obvious point that almost no mainstream commentator makes.

He seems to have the perfect balance between idealism and pragmatism. It is really refreshing to hear socialist values articulated so well.
Thank you to whoever posted the Nick Robinson interview, really interesting. He spoke about how in the 60s train drivers and bus drivers were on similar pay with bus drivers often being on slightly more, effective union action protected train drivers, but bus drivers have seen their pay and conditions deteriorate significantly.

That’s exactly it, Spinning. Most ‘socialist’ commentators or media figures are heavily entrenched in identity politics, or are clearly very middle class people who fancy themselves as a saviour (yes Owen Jones I am looking at you).

It’s very refreshing to see a true working class person make their case in such a concise and compelling way.

He was very honest about how much he currently earns , he asked Piers Morgan what his salary was and he wouldn't answer. Fair enough , but I bet it's an awful lot more than ML earns!!
He agreed he was on a good wage after a long time as an railway electrician but it's taken him years to get to that salary.
Plus he earns a bit more as a union leader too I think , but I'm not sure how that works.

Am very relieved he hasn't been cancelled overnight, and I still admire him. I really hope this gives more people the confidence to stand up and demand better.

I don't agree with his Brexit stance, but that's fine, I can disagree with people and still respect them.

The alternative to industrial action is to the let the tories continue to push us all in to poverty. There is literally nothing else that will make them stop at this point.

Thanks @saddowizca

Just read the reasons that the RMT encouraged their members to vote FOR Brexit.

How many MNers agree with them and Mick Lynch about Brexit:

www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-sets-out-six-key-reasons-for-leaving-the-eu/

TRANSPORT UNION RMT today set out six key reasons why it will be advising members to vote to the leave the EU in the forthcoming referendum:
1.
Leave the EU to end attacks on rail workers
New EU rail policies are set to further entrench rail privatisation and fragmentation. That will also mean more attacks or jobs and conditions and EU laws will make it impossible to bring all of rail back into public ownership.

2.
Leave the EU to end attacks on seafarers and the offshore workers
The EU has promoted undercutting and social dumping leading to the decimation of UK seafarers. The same is now happening in the offshore sector. EU directives also require the tendering our public ferry services.
3.
Leave the EU to end attacks on workers’ rights
It’s a myth that the EU is in favour of workers. In fact the EU is developing a new policy framework to attack trade union rights, collective bargaining, job protections and wages. This is already being enforced in countries which have received EU “bailouts”.
4.
Leave the EU to end Austerity
If you join a union you expect members of the union to protect each other in times of trouble. The European Union has done the opposite. It has used the economic crisis to impose austerity and privatization on member states. Instead of protecting jobs and investment EU austerity is driving UK austerity.

5.
Leave the EU to stop the attack on our NHS
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade agreement being negotiated between the EU and the United States will promote big business at the expense government protections and organisations including our NHS! Environmental regulations, employment rights, food safety, privacy laws and many other safeguards will also be secondary to the right of corporations to make even bigger profits.

6.
Leave the EU to support democracy
The vast majority of the laws that affects our lives are now made in the EU and not the UK. We have no say over those Laws. As the late Tony Benn said in 1991…
“We are discussing whether the British people are to be allowed to elect those who make the laws under which they are governed. The argument is nothing to do with whether we should get more maternity leave from Madame Papandreou [a European Commissioner].”

Probably not many of us, especially as the majority of the most pro Leave posters on MN seemed to be Tory, but then it's possible to agree with a person on one point and not on another.

Mick Lynch, as was the case for all Lexiters, was in useful idiot territory on Brexit. That's not where he is on the strikes.

The EU proved very useful to the desire of (some) Tories (Mrs Thatcher was notably opposed) for rail privatisation.
They hung their plans off EU Directive 91/440.
Tory implementations of that and subsequent directives have been damaging to the interests of UK rail workers.

Oh, there's always been a valid socialist, pro worker critique of the EU. No doubt about that. It just wasn't smart to imagine that we were ever going to get a Brexit that would alleviate any of those problems, not when the ship was being steered by the batshit right of the Tory party. And unfortunately, any Brexit support, however socialist the reasoning might be, empowered said batshit right.

Are those RMT reasons (the 6 reasons) actually credible? I've heard them mentioned obliquely on other threads on here - but other posters would come on and then calmly demolish the arguments, and say that governments had chosen to use EU directives, they hadn't been forced upon us (and of course we still had sovereignty).

I'd like to know the facts.

Did the EU really have a hand in wrecking our transport industries? And if so, why are these industries even shitter after Brexit? Is it that the RMT wanted Brexit as the only way of holding this looting government to account?