The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers has just voted to end strikes after agreeing a pay deal. First doctors, now rail workers – The dominoes are falling…
According to the deal, strikes will be cancelled until at least spring, with the 20,000 members receiving a lump sum of at least £1,750 before the Christmas break and getting no compulsory redundancies until the end of 2024. We’re not out of the woods yet, though, with next week’s rail strikes are still on as Aslef members strike over pay. Christmas giveaways are coming in thick and fast…
After a very chummy left-wing, back-patting discussion on the RMT’s strikes, James O’Brien’s interview with Mick Lynch took an unexpected turn as Remoaner-in-chief O’Brien tried getting Lynch to condemn Brexit. In light of the government taking back control of workers’ rights…
Far from shirking the confrontation, Lynch provided one of the most coherent and well-argued defences of the constitutional principles of Brexit heard in recent months, pointing out that having sovereignty over workers’ rights is no bad thing, and allows for these policies to be debated and thrashed out back home rather than in Brussels. Lynch’s Lexit logic was impeccable.
Asked if he’d still back Brexit today were there a second referendum, James O’Brien ended up looking crestfallen as the RMT boss refused to deny that he would. 1:0 to Mick…
Mick Grynch has just given a train wreck of an interview on the Today Programme. As the country grinds to a halt thanks to the RMT’s rail strikes, the union’s ringleader hit the airwaves to explain himself, clearly expecting a slap on the back and a handshake.
Instead, when asked the most basic questions about declining support for the strikes and the average loss to members for picketing, Lynch threw his toys out the pram.
Asked how much it’s costing a union member to strike in terms of lost pay, Lynch fumed:
“…[You’re] pursuing an editorial line I’d read in the Sun or the Daily Mail or the Telegraph […] I find this a shocking stance that the BBC will take. You are just parroting the most right wing stuff you can get hold of on behalf of the establishment.”
To which host Mishal Husain gently replied: “They’re just questions“. This is the same Mick Lynch who sneered at GB News for not being “a proper outlet”. If even the BBC are too right-wing him now, who’s left? Novara?
Another day, another shadow cabinet minister dodging the simple question: do you support the strikes? Today it was Angela Rayner’s turn, after the RMT last night voted to derail Christmas with more strikes over the next few weeks. Asked by Kay Burley if she supported the move and all the chaos it will inflict, an unusually coy Rayner trotted out Labour’s refrain:
“I think the RMT don’t want to take action. I want to see that strike action avoided… I don’t want to see industrial action because I see workers losing their pay and I see the public inconvenienced. I think there’s a way of us getting around the table and stopping it…”
“Inconvenienced” here means a £1.7 billion hit to the economy and thousands of family Christmas plans thrown out the window. Rayner also claimed, “We don’t have industrial action in Wales”. Almost true… apart from the thousands of striking nurses and ambulance workers.
Rule number one at a party conference: check who you’re sitting next to before saying anything. Following yesterday’s disruptive train strikes, Mick Lynch has joined the Cabinet in Birmingham to speak at an Enough is Enough rally in the square around the corner. Unfortunately for Mick, his train seat on the way up was within earshot of a co-conspirator, who confidently informs Guido that the RMT Union General Secretary was overheard complaining about nothing other than… train delays. Sweet, sweet karma…
RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch has called off the planned rail strikes – scheduled for 15th and 17th September – out of respect for the Queen. In a statement last night, the union boss announced the strike action had been postponed until further notice as members “[join] the whole nation in paying its respects”:
“The planned railway strike action on 15 and 17 September is suspended. We express our deepest condolences to her family, friends and the country.”
The Communication Workers Union has also called off a planned Royal Mail strike, with General Secretary Dave Ward saying “Following the very sad news of the passing of the Queen, and out of respect for her service to the country and her family, the union has decided to call off tomorrow’s planned strike action,”
Fair play to both Lynch and Ward, whether they’re genuinely in mourning or its cynical comms, they made the right call…
