Mick Lynch announces retirement as head of RMT

Mick Lynch, head of the nation’s largest railway union, has introduced his retirement.

He turned common secretary of the Nationwide Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Staff in 2021, and underneath his management the union staged a collection of strikes over pay in 2022 and 2023, culminating in a cope with the brand new Labour authorities this summer season.

Feted by supporters for his straight-talking fashion, he was attacked by critics for his £84,000 wage and for the disruption attributable to the union’s industrial motion.

In a press release, Mr Lynch didn’t give a cause for standing down however stated it had “been a privilege to serve this union for over 30 years in all capacities”, including it was now “time for change”.

Mr Lynch will keep in his function till Might, when RMT members elect a brand new common secretary.

He stated there was a necessity for a powerful union for rail staff, however {that a} robust organisation wanted “renewal and alter”.

He stated he was pleased with serving the union, including: “This union has been by numerous struggles lately, and I imagine that it has solely made it stronger regardless of all the percentages.”

At 16, he left school and trained to be an electrician, earlier than discovering work in building.

As industrial motion ebbed and flowed within the Eighties, Mr Lynch turned concerned in a breakaway union and was secretly blacklisted by constructions firms, leaving him struggling to search out work for years.

When the blacklist was uncovered many years later, Mr Lynch was compensated with a cheque for £35,000, a replica of which hangs framed on his workplace wall.

He went on to discovered the Electrical and Plumbing Industries Union (EPIU) in 1988, earlier than becoming a member of the RMT.

He took cost of the RMT at a time of deep internal divisions.

Mr Lynch’s predecessor as common secretary, Mick Money, retired in 2020 after six years within the job, blaming a “marketing campaign of harassment” by parts of the membership.

Mr Lynch was appointed performing common secretary, however quickly stood down himself, accusing senior union members of “bullying” and creating “an insupportable, poisonous environment”.

He then returned and received election to the function completely in Might 2021.