‘I don’t want to be an icon’: Mick Lynch on winning the rail strike PR battle
At 7 o’clock on Saturday morning, union boss Mick Lynch was once again on the picket line at Euston station in London, galvanising colleagues, talking tactics on the pay negotiations and conducting broadcast interviews.
Until the biggest industrial action on the rail network for more than 30 years, few people would have even heard of Lynch, general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT). This weekend, he is a national figure.
While millions of rail passengers were hit by the dispute, Lynch has won plaudits for clearly articulating the grievances of his members and the reasons for action. He has also disarmed some of television’s most experienced interrogators, including Sky News broadcaster Kay Burley and Talk TV presenter Piers Morgan.
A Network Rail spokesperson said yesterday that Lynch had spent “more time on telly than at the [negotiating] table this week”. Rail bosses accuse the union of adopting “strike first, negotiate later” tactics.
Despite the brickbats, it was Lynch who was widely judged to have won last week’s public relations battle.
John Leach, RMT assistant general secretary, said: “We’ve had some larger-than-life general secretaries in the past going back to the days of Jimmy Knapp and Bob Crow and all of a sudden there’s this guy no one has heard of articulating what millions are thinking.”
There is concern among ministers that the RMT has been first out of the blocks in what could be a long and difficult few months for pay talks. Lynch has voiced the frustrations and worries of a workforce whose pay packets have effectively been eroded by inflation.
NHS workers and teachers are among the employees who have seen their pay fall in real terms over the past decade.
Passing
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