Train strikes: RMT boss Mick Lynch hits out at BBC over coverage

The boss of the UK’s biggest rail union has insisted support for strikes amongst its members is not dropping in a heated exchange with the BBC.

“We’ve got massive picket lines out today. We’ve taken the railway into shutdown,” RMT boss Mick Lynch told the BBC’s Today programme.

He said members were prepared to continue to keep walking out.

He was speaking as a fresh series of strikes started bringing the rail network to a standstill.

About 40,000 rail workers are walking out on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday as part of a long-running row over jobs, pay and conditions.

But the government says it will not back down, despite the “damage” done.

Asked whether support for strikes among the union’s members are falling, Mr Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT, said: “No it’s not. We’ve got massive picket lines out today.

“Our members are standing by the core and they’re prepared to take action until we’ve got a settlement that they can agree to, and we haven’t got that at the moment.”

During the exchange, Mr Lynch was pressed on the average amount of pay lost by union members through strike action.

“Why do you need that number?” Mr Lynch replied, before criticising the BBC’s coverage of the rail strikes for showing bias.

“Why are you pursuing an editorial line I could read in The Sun or The Daily Mail or any of the right-wing press in this country, and you’re not pursuing the fact that working people – millions of them – are being impoverished and some of them being made destitute by the attitude of this government and by their employers?

“I find this a shocking stance that the BBC will take – you’re just parroting the most right-wing stuff you can get hold of on behalf of the establishment, and it’s about time you showed some partiality towards your listeners, to working-class people in this country who are being screwed to the floor by the attitudes and policies of this government.”

Mr Lynch added the government “needs to facilitate a settlement that says ‘let’s get real and let’s put some stuff to the RMT they can cope with and deal with'”.

The Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, said that the strikes by rail workers will be “very damaging”.

Mr Harper told the BBC he was “very disappointed” that the RMT had rejected the latest pay offer “out of hand” and that isn’t “a bottomless pot” of money.

“A fair and reasonable offer has been made. We do also need to see reform agreed at the same time,” he added.

Most train companies across Britain are likely to be affected by the strikes, and Network Rail has urged passengers to “only travel if absolutely necessary”.

Travellers are advised to check their train-operating company’s website before setting out, with delays and cancellations also likely on the days around the strikes.

There are likely to be no services early in the morning or late at night, with only one in five services operating between 07:30 – 18:30 GMT.

The RMT has held a series of strikes since the summer that have shut much of the rail network in England, Scotland and Wales and threaten to hit businesses in the run-up to Christmas.

It comes as workers in many other industries down tools, with bus drivers, Royal Mail workers, nurses and highways workers and baggage handlers also striking this week.

Rail workers are calling for better conditions and pay rises to match the pace of inflation, with the cost of living rising at its fastest rate for more than 40 years.

But the government has ruled out inflation-linked wage increases, and rail bosses say big changes are needed to modernise the railway.

On Monday, Network Rail, which operates the UK’s rail infrastructure, said the union was causing “misery” after its members rejected a fresh pay deal.