Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT,  speaks for rail workers who have good terms and conditions at present and risk losing them and for workers who have bad or no contracts.

On the media and having a high profile:

“… having a high profile on social media is one thing, getting a deal in a very tough set of negotiations is an entirely different matter. I would trade any profile for a good deal for our members. We have got to get a result out of this — and we are only in the early days.

SI: What have you learned about the media in the past week?

ML: They’re a bit shallow and a bit unprepared and a bit glib.

(from the Irish Independent 26/6/22)

On his political hero:

Who is your political hero?

James Connolly.  Do you know who James Connolly is?  An Irish socialist Republican.  He educated himself and started non sectarian trade unionism in Ireland, and he was a hero of the Irish Revolution.

So he is your hero?

He’s a hero.

Peston ITV 22/6/22

On the Labour Party

We’re not affiliated and one of the reasons we are not affiliated is that Labour politicians since Blair have not identified with the working class people and failing to do that is one of the problems they have in working class communities      and they’ve left the door open to populists and others to come into the situation.  The labour party is about supporting working people, or it should be, and not [making things up] from opinion makers such as the Daily Mail and the Telegraph or the Times. They’ve got  to sort out their identity and come up with a set of policies that will relieve working class poverty,  that will give us a stable work place with good conditions and minimum standards, that’s what the Labour Party should be about.  

I welcome anyone who wants to support us on the picket lines, and show us messages of support; if Keir Starmer can’t do that, it’s a problem for him, not for us.

BBC Politics Live 21/6/22

On outsourcing:

Outsourcing is the biggest evil in the workplace in this country.  All these men and women working for Mitie and all these other outsourcing companies are being ripped off and virtually enslaved by these companies.

  We’re not going to have it anymore.  You don’t have to be a social scientist to work out who is getting these poor contracts: the black people, the migrant people, people from minorities, suffering disproportionally and we’re going to stand up and say no to this structural racism.  Every worker in the NHS, in the public services, in education, in care, in transport should be a on a single contract of employment, common terms and conditions and pensions.  That’s what we used to have and that’s what we want back.

[…]

Keir Starmer and others they’re hesitating […] I want him to be the Prime Minister, he must win, but we’ve got to push him, persuade him to get into a position where he’s in the front rank with all of you, helping us, assisting us, identifying with our causes, identifying with equality in the work place, identifying with unity; we cannot be divided, do not fall the tricks of the media, trying to play a nurse against a railway worker.

On the rail system fragmentation and Private companies making a profit from state subsidies:

Funding has been cut, so employers have tremendous challenges.

But some of the problems in this industry are due to the structure, the structure of the railway is fragmented, and I think if we had one coherent railway under the control of a national entity we’d be in far better position.  That’s up to him [G. Shapps} if he wants to make that logical decision he can make it, otherwise we’re going to have to deal with a multitude of employers, a multitude of owning groups, all looking to take profit from the railway, all the while it’s being subsidised.  That’s a contradiction that can’t continue.

Speech at rally 25/6/22

On class war:

Sophie Ridge: So this is class war?

ML: There is a class aspect to everything in the economy: there are lower paid people and rich people in this society and what’s wrong is that there is an imbalance between people who do the work, keep this country going, who create the wealth of our civilisation and don’t get a fair share of that wealth.

Sophie Ridge on Sunday19/6/22