The general secretary of the biggest rail union, the RMT, is in his office contemplating almost 18 months of industrial strife.
“It’s been worth it for our members,” says Mick Lynch.
After more than 30 days of walk-outs, his members have voted overwhelmingly to accept a pay deal that offers a 5 per cent pay rise backdated to 2022, with further negotiations to come.
“We’ve defended our terms and conditions. We’ve defended our pension scheme, which is vitally important – a final salary pension scheme.
“We’ve not made one concession. Our members voted for that strike action four times under the legislation and they stuck by the campaign.
“Now they’ve got an outcome which is an interim outcome – it’s not more than that – which gives them a bit of peace at Christmas time and some back pay that they can store up. So that is a step forward. It’s progress in the dispute. It was worth it.”
The prime minister’s personal disdain for the railway is evident. Rishi Sunak uses helicopters to cover short journeys such as London to Southampton, and chose to halve Air Passenger Duty on domestic flights, encouraging a switch from trains to planes. Many long-serving railway figures, and passengers with long memories, fear that Mick Whelan – general secretary of Aslef – is right when he says “the industry is going into massive managed decline”.
The train drivers’ struggle continues, with a nine-day overtime ban and rolling regional strikes reminding rail passengers of the perils of planning a trip. Mick Lynch says “I support Aslef. We want a deal for all railway workers. We want the companies to make reasonable proposals and an unconditional pay offer would help.”
The RMT is preparing for company-by-company negotiations early next year, with a view to finding lasting settlements by Easter. But with a tangle of talks ahead with train firms – as well as publicly owned Network Rail – Mr Lynch warns that future strikes should not be ruled out.
“Yes, it has been worth it and our members, I believe, will be prepared to take whatever action is necessary to go forward in the future.”
Since the first national rail strikes began in June 2022, the union boss has become an icon of the left.
Mr Lynch seems comfortable with the role: “We think our efforts have galvanised many working people in this country to say: ‘We…
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