RMT leader Mick Lynch to speak in Wigan alongside other trade unionists amid ongoing strikes

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch will speak at Wigan Central pub at 5pm on Wednesday in a meeting hosted by Wigan RMT and supported by Wigan Trades Council.

He will be joined by speakers from the CWU and Unison Health, whose members are currently involved in strike action.

Trade unionist Mr Lynch has been leading rail workers across the country in ongoing strike action and has become a well-known face due to a series of appearances on national television.

A spokesman for Wigan Trades Council said: “The cost-of-living crisis is not going away and all the signals from economic experts indicate that if anything, the crisis will get worse this year. This government has no answers to the misery their policies are causing except to bad-mouth trade unionists and accuse us of being unreasonable in defending our train services, our NHS, our postal services and the living standards of thousands of workers across towns like Wigan.

“The RMT have been in the forefront of the recent battles to keep workers’ wages ahead of inflation and reject government policies that would compromise the safety of the travelling public. Nurses and ambulance workers are fighting to save the NHS from the untold damage done to it by decades of neglect, with death rates as a result now in the hundreds per week.

“We are pleased and honoured that Mick Lynch is coming to Wigan to lay out the issues faced by his members on the railways, and doubly pleased that he will be accompanied by leaders of the other unions in the forefront of rejecting the idea that ordinary workers must pay for a crisis that is not of their making.”

Steve Shaw, RMT national executive member for Wigan, said: “Railway companies are demanding an end to ticket offices, an end to station staff, an end to guards on trains, enforced redundancies and a low-wage workforce. At the same time they have been raising fares and providing a poor service to passengers, even without strikes. Every survey proves that. And because the government is fanatical about privatisation, they bankroll train companies to the tune of £124m of taxpayers’ money each year to keep shareholders happy. And they are happy; in recent accounts some £90m has been paid out in dividends. This money could have been used to pay decent wages and invested into high-quality services.

“Our message to the public is a very simple one: we want a railway service that meets the needs of both the public and railway workers. We want a railway service that puts the safety and well-being of the public and railway workers before the demands of directors and shareholders. Our members in Wigan and across the country are the natural allies of the travelling public in this struggle; we depend on them and they depend on us, so we’ll not stop fighting for a decent service for them and we’re sure they’ll not stop their support for us.

"We invite all to attend the meeting with Mick Lynch to hear what the issues really are about, not what the Tories and railway companies pretend they’re about.”