Mick Lynch

In a heated BBC Newsnight exchange, the RMT Union leader also said he would be happy to negotiate with the Tory government.

“That’s a direct lie.” We’ve never said we won’t meet the Tories. “That’s a lie,” Lynch said again.

These were the entertaining words of Mick Lynch, secretary-general of the RMT union, on Newsnight as he made his feelings about the UK Government abundantly ...

You've also lied that we left negotiations on Saturday.. You are a liar, You're lying You are a liar, and you're a liar You're a liar— Fintan McCarthy💙 (@MccarthyFintan) #RailStrikes pic.twitter.com/MAkPhFCBpj June 21, 2022 "That's a lie, a direct lie, he's lying, that's a lie, that's a lie, that is a lie, a direct lie, direct lie, that is a lie, he's lying. That's a lie, a direct lie, he's lying,that's a lie,that's a lie, that is a lie, a direct lie,direct lie,that is a lie, he's lying.

These were the entertaining words of Mick Lynch, secretary-general of the RMT union, on Newsnight as he made his feelings about the UK Government abundantly ...

You've also lied that we left negotiations on Saturday.. You are a liar, You're lying You are a liar, and you're a liar You're a liar— Fintan McCarthy💙 (@MccarthyFintan) #RailStrikes pic.twitter.com/MAkPhFCBpj June 21, 2022 "That's a lie, a direct lie, he's lying, that's a lie, that's a lie, that is a lie, a direct lie, direct lie, that is a lie, he's lying. That's a lie, a direct lie, he's lying,that's a lie,that's a lie, that is a lie, a direct lie,direct lie,that is a lie, he's lying.

The Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has told LBC this week's crippling rail strike has been called under "false pretences" and RMT's boss Mick Lynch is ...

He explained: "They haven’t offered us three per cent plus one per cent what they’re offering to us is two per cent plus a conditional one per cent in two half per cent stages. He also accused the RMT - which is asking for a seven per cent pay rise and no extension to the 35-hour working week - of being "extreme" and not allowing the Government to modernise some of the working practices of the railway. He claimed the RMT is calling its members out on strike under "false pretences" and accused Mick Lynch, the union's general secretary, of wanting to transform himself into one of the "1970s union barons".

People are praising RMT boss Mick Lynch for his "brilliant answer" during a Sky News interview about the continued strikes and the chaos it has caused.

"Do you not know how a picket line works?" "What will they do if those agency workers try to cross the picket lines?" "The government is saying that they are going to bring in agency workers; my question to you is, I'm guessing that some of your member's will stay on the picket lines?"

So, the two-bob Che Guevara has got his way. He's done what he's been determined to do since he became boss of one of the country's most militant unions ...

Let’s not allow bunch of pampered, greedy train drivers and rail workers to cause this country any more pain that its currently suffering. Tell that to the 14,000 Rolls Royce workers who this week were each given a £2,000 lump sum payment by their bosses to help cope with the cost of living crisis. Never mind that this strike and his determination to take us back five decades will cost a fragile hospitality industry £540m in seven days – an industry that was only just recovering after the pandemic. He drones on about solidarity but the kind of solidarity he peddles is hurting this country’s poorest. So the hellish work environment Lynch describes is also all in his head. Oh and they don’t have to work Sundays and they can retire at 62. Since 2011 real term pay rises have been 17.2 percent while in the last ten years train drivers have seen their wages rise by a gargantuan 39 percent when the UK average is just percent. He's done what he's been determined to do since he became boss of one of the country's most militant unions - he's brought Britain to a standstill. Lynch’s strike has stopped millions getting to work, it’s stopped patients having operations and getting to vital health appointments. It’s stopped the poorly paid – the very people Lynch professes to champion – from getting to work. But then he doesn’t want to part of the 21st century. How triumphant and powerful must he feel now – vindicated even, that the man who was once bullied now has all the power.

Mick Lynch, secretary-general of National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) clashed with Stoke-on-Trent MP Jonathan Gullis on BBC Politics ...

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RMT general-secretary Mick Lynch has been front and centre in the media this week, representing rail workers after they voted overwhelmingly for action last ...

The RMT is seeking a pay rise of at least 7 per cent, in line with the rise in the cost of living. He received a large compensation package for this 20 years later. Mr Lynch said ahead of the strikes: “Railway workers have been treated appallingly and despite our best efforts in negotiations, the rail industry with the support of the Government has failed to take their concerns seriously.

MICK LYNCH is the boss of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, whose members are striking in their thousands over job losses, pay and conditions.Bu.

But in May 2021, he stood in and won the election for the permanent position of General Secretary. Lynch served two terms as assistant general secretary of the RMT, and two terms on its executive. "I understand the anger of people - but I also understand the anger of our workers. Lynch previously served two terms as assistant general secretary of the RMT, earning £100k-a-year in pay and benefits. In 1993, he began working for Eurostar, to which he became active in the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT). MICK LYNCH is the boss of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, whose members are striking in their thousands over job losses, pay and conditions.

RMT union leader, Mick Lynch, raised eyebrows as he told Baroness Chapman "I don't even know who you are" during an interview about the ongoing rail strikes ...

But it appeared Lynch wasn't having it as he volleyed back, "I didn't tell you you weren't working-class...I don't even know your name." The Labour front-bencher winced as she defended herself by adding: "Well...there you go...so don't tell me I'm not working-class or whatever." RMT union leader, Mick Lynch, raised eyebrows as he told Baroness Chapman "I don't even know who you are" during an interview about the ongoing rail strikes.

The union chief said he 'couldn't believe the line of questioning' from the Sky News host as rail workers began the biggest industrial action in a ...

We’re in a picket line and we’ll ask them not to go to work. Ms Burley went on: “I just wondered what else it might involve because... The union chief said he “couldn’t believe the line of questioning” from the Sky News host as rail workers began the biggest industrial action in a generation on Tuesday morning.

Billionaires control our politics and our press, yet we're told unions are the real enemy of the British worker.

Yet the spectre of the ‘British public’ is used as a shield by mouthpieces of the wealthy to attack organised labour. Look at soaring company profits and billionaire wealth, and you’ll see that that’s happening right across the economy. Then Labour front bencher Jenny Chapman, stung by Lynch’s suggestion that Labour no longer understood the working class, tried to draw him into a personal discussion about her own background, something he hadn’t brought up. After Lynch called out Burley’s scaremongering, the veteran news anchor tweeted indignantly that her father had been a trade union leader, as though this somehow cancelled out the fact she had just insinuated that workers might become violent if agency workers were brought in. We could talk for hours about the causes of this, but the simplest is that, in the negotiation over who gets the wealth we all produce with our work, bosses and owners are getting more and more, and workers are getting less and less. The media should interpret reality back to the public. The pundits and politicians facing him off have adopted the curious position that unions are the real enemy of the worker, framing the RMT as intransigent dinosaurs holding rail-reliant ‘ordinary people’ to ransom. Only the Greens seem to support the union. Labour, the supposed party of the organised working class, has pledged to punish any MPs who support striking workers. While wages have been stagnant for most people in the country over the last 15 years or so, and are about to be eaten up by soaring inflation, the cumulative wealth of the top ten billionaires in the UK has grown from £48bn in 2009 to £182bn in 2022 – an increase of 281%. There are more billionaires than ever before, and their wealth surged during the pandemic. Follow the British media – largely owned by those gleeful billionaires – and you’d think it was all the other way around. And it’s not just the oligarchs.

The largest rail and Tube strike in nearly 30 years is underway as union boss Mick Lynch leads tens of thousands of rail workers in a walkout at Network ...

But the “shaven-headed rail union baron” is proving himself to be “even more militant” than the “infamous firebrand” Bob Crow, who led the RMT until his death in 2014, claimed the Daily Mail. While “Crow and his apparatchiks in the RMT” staged “more than 100 strike ballots”, under the leadership of Lynch “the RMT has balloted for strike action on 200 occasions”, the Mail said. “When you tell your friends about a blacklist, they say it’s bollocks. Describing his political outlook to The Telegraph last month he called himself “straightforward old Labour”, someone who supports “‘tax and spend’ legislation” and campaigns “in favour of working-class people to redistribute the wealth in the economy. When Lynch became head of the RMT union in May 2021, some in the rail industry were “quietly relieved”. They regarded him as “competent, practical and across the detail” with some even suggesting he is “in RMT terms, a centrist”, said The Guardian. His search for work took him to the railways and he joined Eurostar in 1993, where he “founded and built up its RMT branch before climbing the rungs within the union”, said The Times. But, according to The Times, industry figures “say it is Lynch and his colleagues’ unwillingness to give up generous working practices dating back to the 1950s” that has led to the breakdown in talks between the two sides, leading to widespread industrial action on the railways.

"We need mass rallies, we need people on the streets, we need protests in every town and city in Britain," the union boss said.

“So that we can rebalance the inequalities in our society. Strikes are also planned for Thursday and Saturday. He added that the industrial action is “taking us back to the bad old days of union strikes” as he vowed to “push on” with reforms of the sector.

RAIL union boss “Mad” Mick Lynch and his militant mates gloated as they caused chaos for millions of commuters yesterday.In a throwback to lockdow.

In the end I bit the bullet and got a taxi as it was really important for me to get here.” Graham Benton, 48, was due to catch a train from Portsmouth to London for the surgery. The Beeb insisted it had covered “a range of voices”. These improvements in the way we run our railways are in the interests of the travelling public, they will help to cut costs for farepayers up and down the country. Less than two-thirds will run today due to the delay in starting services, plus control room staff refusing to work overnight. The PM added: “I say this to the country as a whole, we need to get ready to stay the course.

Union general secretary warns more disruption is 'inevitable' across different industries if the government doesn't change direction.

You seem to have gone off into the world of the surreal.” When asked how his members would respond to agency members who attempted to cross the line, Mr Lynch responded dismissively: “Well, we’ll picket them, what do you think we’re going to do? We want a resolution, but many in the public, like us, are suffering from rampant austerity."

Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) leader Mick Lynch kept his cool during questioning from Ms Burley.

"Do you not know how a picket line works?" "What will they do if those agency workers try to cross the picket lines?" "The government is saying that they are going to bring in agency workers; my question to you is, I'm guessing that some of your member's will stay on the picket lines?"

The general secretary for RMT – the main union leading the rail strikes – has been thrust into the spotlight in recent days to explain why 40,000 workers are ...

As the presenter continued to ask what the strikers’ picketing involves, he said: “You can see what picketing involves, I can’t believe this line of questioning. I don’t even know your name!” “I don’t even know who you are,” Lynch replied.

Union chief had a series of fiery clashes on TV yesterday (21 June)

Start your Independent Premium subscription today. “Does anyone know how I can buy Mick Lynch a pint tonight, because the man absolutely deserves it,” added another. “Is it just me or if Mick Lynch was leader of the Labour party it would be 20 points clear in the polls?

STRIKES are underway across Britain's rail network after a last attempt at talks between unions and rail bosses failed on Monday.

People who were really at the real front line of all this?" did Mick Lynch just drop a solid gold clip on every news channel he went on this morning? "Why are we not giving nurses 11% pay rises? “People are stripping money out of the railway, they’re stripping money out of the economy. People also seemed to enjoyed his interview with Sophy Ridge who quizzed Lynch about the impact of a pay rise on inflation. The RMT is seeking a pay rise of at least 7%, in line with the rise in the cost of living.

The RMT union boss Mick Lynch is currently dominating TV screens and social media, making mincemeat out of politicians and broadcast interviewers alike.

Sometimes the little things matter – I can remember a famous carmaker agreeing to supply the shopfloor with free copies of the Morning Star as a carrot in negotiations with a hard-left shop steward. But for the sake of us viewers, let's hope politicians follow his lead and actually start answering a few more questions. It strikes me he is bringing to the screen the same persona he uses in negotiations, which I imagine his opponents from rail management would find infuriating. To be fair to Piers (not a comment made lightly) it was a 15-minute interview, an unusual long-form in this age of snapshot social media clips, in which the RMT boss was able to make an extended and well-presented case for the strike. It is a masterclass in how to handle the media. When Sky News' Kay Burley tried to conjure up images of Grunwick or NUM-style flying pickets violently preventing workers and commuters from entering stations, he simply stood to one side to show her a handful of RMT workers allowing passengers to go by.

Union's general-secretary goes viral for uncompromising interview style as industrial action leaves nation's train stations deserted and commuters stranded.

We will stop agency workers crossing the picket line by asking them not to go to work. I want a settlement to this dispute but I can’t do that with a backbench MP who’s just learned it off a script. I don’t want this disruption, I don’t want people to be inconvenienced. Are we to beg? Are we to plead? Our union will now embark on a sustained campaign of industrial action which will shut down the railway system.”

Mr Lynch took part in a series of eye-catching media appearances in with Sky News host Kay Burley, Tory MP Jonathan Gullis and Labour's Baroness Chapman.

Now is the time to stand up and fight for every single railway worker in this dispute that we will win." Mr Lynch was a prominent figure on TV and radio during Tuesday's strike action. Nonetheless, he was elected to the role permanently less than a year later. As the general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), Mr Lynch has been a key figure in the dispute over jobs, pay and conditions. After being blacklisted because of his union involvement, he moved to work on the railways in 1993. Mr Lynch has been the general secretary of the RMT union since May 2021.

The RMT general secretary has used a combination of plain-speaking, quick-thinking, bemusement and basic mockery to pursue a one-man PR war in defence of ...

And that means that it is at least a meaningful sentence. “If workers’ wages don’t go up, it means a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.” This was also true. If more leaders, from left and right, were to adopt that approach, we would live in a healthier political culture. But they still spoke in concrete falsifiable terms and respected the intelligence of the viewer. They’re trying to figure out their vulnerability to it and the potential advantages. He gave a very revealing answer to the first question he was asked on the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast recently. The key is that he is not using a technique. He wouldn’t condemn the strike. “The most remarkable twaddle,” he replied. “I want a settlement to this dispute,” he replied. It sounds like nothing, but in fact it is everything. He’s taken a dispute which would normally outrage commuters and given it a compelling moral and political justification.

Who is Mick Lynch? What did RMT union leader say in Kay Burley rail strike interview - annual salary explained. Over 50,000 workers are expected to go on strike ...

The interview ended with Lynch accusing the questions of “verging into the nonsense,” with Burley explaining her questions were for the “benefit of the British Public.” The interview grew even more tense when Burley compared the rail strike to the miners’ strike of the 1980s. The union leader has been at the forefront of the strike and has a lot to say on the matter. In an awkward interview with Kay Burley on Sky News, Lynch called her questions “verging on nonsense.” Shapps, who is the Transport Secretary, called the strike “unnecessary” in an interview with Sky News. Union leader Mick Lynch has been the face of the strike, leading the conversation in the media and negotiating behind closed doors.

The straight-talking unionist has been praised for his no-nonsense interview style and brutal takedowns of TV hosts from Piers Morgan to Kay Burley.

“Mick Lynch is not slick, he’s charmless and he’s not photogenic. Lynch insisted that riding the train did not make him a hypocrite, and that he had “no choice”. “The unions have got to make a militant stand – and use the strike weapon wherever it’s appropriate,” he said when he got the job last year, calling his politics “straightforward old Labour”. But despite his right-wing critics nicknaming him “comrade chaos” in this week’s rail battle, Lynch insists he’s not a communist or looking for a fight. Burley wasn’t the only key figure he’s publicly accused of talking “nonsense” this week. Since then, he’s proven himself to be just as militant as the late “firebrand” RMT boss Bob Crow, who died in 2014 after being branded “the most hated man in London” during Tube strikes - if not more so. I almost joined the RMT, and I’m a farmer,” one teased. The answer is simple, whichever side of the strike debate you fall on: yes, yes he did. Unable to find a job in construction, he began working for Eurostar and became an active member of the RMT. I almost joined the RMT, and I’m a farmer” are among the tens of thousands of social media comments about the indomitable union baron so far. The blacklisting was finally found to be illegal 20 years later, and he received a large settlement. ITV News, Channel 4 and BBC Newsnight are among the broadcasters to invite him on to explain why 40,000 railway workers are striking for three days, though perhaps some of their journalists are regretting it now.