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A third rail strike involving around 40,000 workers took place on Saturday, continuing the largest walkouts for 30 years. The further industrial action came as a dispute over pay and conditions between train workers and the Government remains unresolved. Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT (National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers) has warned there could be more strikes if the two sides cannot reach a settlement with the Government.
Amid the travel chaos the strikes have caused, Mr Lynch has been grilled by journalists on everything from the disruption to train services to his socialist principles to Brexit.
In recent days, he has defended his decision to vote to leave the EU and his union encouraging its members to also back Brexit.
However, his defence of Britain’s withdrawal from the European bloc comes after an unearthed letter from May last year reveals that he warned of the “betrayal of Brexit”.
In an open letter, he criticised what he claimed was a decline in workers’ rights, maritime safety and economic prospects in Dover post-Brexit.
He said: “Make no mistake, this is a betrayal of Brexit in a coastal community scarred by the industrial changes the country underwent in the Seventies and Eighties.
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“At this rate, we certainly won’t see ‘more jobs and money’ from Brexit, as the local MP, Natalie Elphicke promised in 2020.”
Last week, the union leader also admitted that there was a “problem” with Britain’s withdrawal from the European trading bloc.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Dearbhail McDonald, he said: “The problem with Brexit is the people that did it.
“It is because it is a Conservative Brexit, not the principle of having your own sovereignty.”
Mr Lynch, whose parents are from Cork and Armagh, also discussed Brexit in the context of his Irish roots.
He said: “If you ask me the questions, I’ll have to give you what I believe – I believe that we should come out of Europe.
“But I would not have minded if they had never had the referendum. Once you open that box you are asking people what they think.
“The politicians maybe should have been a bit clever about getting the reforms they wanted from Europe and keeping an arrangement first but that is where we are now.”
At the time of the referendum, Mr Lynch’s RMT – a union he has been part of for 30 years – encouraged its members to vote Leave.
Last week, ITV’s Robert Peston pressed the union boss on whether he stood by the decision.
He said: “The RMT recommended its members vote to leave the EU.
“Most economists said it has made Britain poorer and pushed up prices. Did the RMT make a mistake?”
Mr Lynch replied: “No, I don’t think we did make a mistake. We support Brexit.”
Historian, and Daily Telegraph columnist Tim Stanley summed up Mr Lynch’s Brexit views on Monday.
The union boss, he argued, is aligned with the kind of Brexit Britain the Government has created, including high taxes and import tariffs on steel.
Mr Stanley wrote: “This is a Mick Lynch Brexit, though some policies are more Lynchist than others.
“Mick is right to say that Britain puts efficiency before quality, that we undervalue our own workers.
“Rather than pay them a decent wage, we import labour, which the Government is still doing.”
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