Mick Lynch: The union firebrand accused of stealing Christmas

One is simply a cynical grump whose cold-hearted crippled to bargain Christmas dampens the festive mood.

The different is Mick Lynch, the wide caput of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT).

In unflattering media coverage, the bogeymen comparisons veer from the Grinch to the Hood, the bald-headed, bushy-eyebrowed baddie from 1960s puppet TV series.

Welcome to the satellite of Mick Lynch, wherever adoring fans and outspoken critics signifier orderly queues to instrumentality selfies with oregon cookware shots astatine the national boss.

Seeking a woody connected jobs, wage and moving conditions, the RMT has escalated its concern action, bringing the full fig of onslaught days to 12 implicit the festive period.

As the RMT's apical official, Mr Lynch is the main spokesperson and negotiator for the union, which represents astir 80,000 members from the transport industry. Some of those members elected Mr Lynch to that presumption successful May 2021, giving him a mandate to support and further their interests.

In a twelvemonth of heightened concern strife, this influential relation successful a captious assemblage has go a substance of nationalist interest, on with the property of the vocation commercialized unionist who wields its power.

Known for his meme-friendly tirades successful beforehand connected TV cameras, Mr Lynch has the benignant of sanction designation unattainable to astir national leaders.

For those who haven't heard of him, his lukewarm reception astatine a caller rally for postal workers would springiness you fewer clues arsenic to wherefore helium was erstwhile labelled "one of the astir hated men successful Britain" by the Daily Mail newspaper.

In a packed Parliament Square, hand-shakers and selfie-takers are sucked into his orbit. Their problems are ours, says Mr Lynch, whose dada was a postal worker.

Never caput the Grinch "nonsense", helium says. Seen done his lens, Mr Lynch is supporting workers successful their conflict against an exploitative authorities and a greedy super-rich.

"I'm a working-class bloke who's elected by the mean men and women of the railway to articulate their lawsuit and correspond them," helium tells the BBC.

Energised by a affable crowd, Mr Lynch saves his astir venomous invective for his stump speech, delivered aft walking connected signifier to chants of "RMT, RMT".

"All the right-wing media, each the commentators, they each hatred us," helium says. "Why bash they hatred us? Because they're frightened of us."

Them-versus-us has been a communal taxable successful Mr Lynch's life. The lad of Irish-Catholic parents, helium grew up successful London during the Troubles successful Northern Ireland and the concern discord of the 1970s. His parents moved to the superior during World War Two and helium was raised connected a assembly property successful Paddington, successful what he's described arsenic "rented rooms that would present beryllium called slums".

At 16, helium near schoolhouse and trained to beryllium an electrician, earlier uncovering enactment successful construction.

As concern enactment ebbed and flowed successful the 1980s, Mr Lynch became progressive successful a breakaway national with a people against its name. He was secretly blacklisted by constructions companies, leaving him struggling to find enactment for years.

When the blacklist was exposed decades later, Mr Lynch was compensated with a cheque for £35,000, a transcript of which hangs framed connected his bureau partition today.

In the meantime, Mr Lynch recovered enactment connected the railways with Eurostar and founded an RMT subdivision for its employees. From there, his emergence to the apical of the RMT was "almost an mishap of history", says Gregor Gall, a prof of concern relations.

With the RMT riven by factionalism, Mr Lynch's predecessor arsenic wide secretary, Mick Cash, retired successful 2020 aft six years successful the job, blaming a "campaign of harassment" by elements of the membership. Mr Lynch was appointed acting wide secretary, but soon stood down himself, accusing elder national members of "bullying" and creating "an intolerable, toxic atmosphere".

Despite this, Mr Lynch returned and won predetermination to the relation permanently successful May 2021.

"The enforcement is present agreed astir him," says Professor Gall.

Mr Lynch was elected with the enactment of Broad Left, a socialist radical successful the union.

Conservative MP Chris Loder, who was an RMT subordinate erstwhile helium worked successful the obstruction industry, says Mr Lynch has a "dependency" connected the group, which is "egging him on" to instrumentality a much militant enactment connected strikes.

Well-paid RMT officials similar Mr Lynch - who says helium earns £84,000 a twelvemonth - are "leading the complaint for ideological reasons", Mr Loder says. He says Mr Lynch is "between a stone and a hard place" due to the fact that "most sensible members of the RMT bash not hold with the level of onslaught enactment he's taking".

Meanwhile, determination person been signs of waning nationalist support. Last month, a YouGov poll recovered immoderate of the RMT's wintertime obstruction strikes were opposed by 47% and supported by 41% of those surveyed.

Will the Christmas obstruction strikes dint Mr Lynch's popularity?

Former shadiness transport caput and Labour MP Andy McDonald doesn't deliberation so. Whenever they crossed paths, Mr Lynch "struck maine arsenic a rock-solid, working-class fella who was precise wide astir what helium believed", Mr McDonald says.

He says helium had a affirmative acquisition moving with him and others connected plans to nationalise the railways nether Jeremy Corbyn's enactment of the Labour Party. Like the left-wing MP, Mr Lynch is seen arsenic straightforward and authentic by his admirers, a working-class firebrand for the TikTok age.

Now Sir Keir Starmer has shifted Labour to the right, Mr Lynch has filled a void connected the left. "There's intelligibly a constituency for that," says Professor Gall.

At the Parliament Square rally, My Lynch appeals straight to that constituency, arsenic Mr Corbyn watches connected backstage.

"I'm saying to Starmer and Reeves and anyone other who seeks to correspond moving people: whose broadside are you on?"

Pointing indignantly to Parliament implicit the road, My Lynch challenges the Labour person to "come implicit present and get connected our picket line".

Mr Lynch is channelling the disaffection felt among workers, conscionable arsenic it was during the 1978-79 Winter of Discontent. Then arsenic now, wide strikes paralysed the economy, arsenic the authorities wrestled with precocious inflation.

From 1 perspective, it was a clip of chaos, made worse by muscular commercialized unions with excessively overmuch power.

Not truthful successful Mr Lynch's world.

"We had a much balanced society," helium says. "The bosses couldn't get distant with immoderate they wanted."

Raising his dependable to beryllium heard implicit the din of aggravated strikers, helium adds: "We request that now."