London-Irishman Mick Lynch came to national prominence in Britain two summers ago when his calm but cutting replies to media interrogators during widespread train strikes made headlines and went viral on social media.
Coffee mugs and T-shirts were soon being emblazoned with some of his pithier justifications for strikes after negotiations had failed to win better pay and conditions. “What else are we to do?” he asked. “Are we to plead? Are we to beg? . . . We want to bargain for our futures. We want to negotiate . . . Do we pray, or play tiddlywinks, or have a sponsored silence? What is there for working people to do if they’re not organised?”
Born in Paddington, west London, in 1962 to Ellen Morris, from Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, and Jackie Lynch from Cork, Lynch qualified as an electrician and was elected general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) after rising through the ranks, having earned a history degree from the London School of Economics while blacklisted from building sites because of trade union activism. Married to an NHS nurse of Mayo background, he carries an Irish passport and his heroes are James Connolly and Constance Markievicz (whose surname is misspelt in this book).
This is not a conventional biography. It’s a dissertation on whether or not Lynch is a “working-class hero” in the mould identified by ex-Beatle John Lennon’s 1970 song of that name. The author says it’s both a celebration and a critique. An industrial relations professor at the University of Leeds, he claims that it is relatively jargon-free and more accessible than average academic studies, but many pages are devoted to the internal machinations of the RMT and other unions.
Vona Groarke wins 2024 Michel Déon Prize
Stronger by Nicola Hanney: An unputdownable memoir about escaping coercive control
Gliff by Ali Smith: Part allegory, part dystopian fiction, altogether thrilling
Shattered by Hanif Kureishi: Darkly funny insights into the indignities and anguish caused by sudden incapacitation
[ Mick Lynch: ‘You knew you were Irish, but most of the people you knew were too’Opens in new window ]
With an annual salary of £100,000 and a house valued at nearly £1 million in Ealing, Lynch is a working-class hero due to what he has said rather than what he has done, because he has failed to win better pay and conditions for rail workers, it concludes.
Lynch declined to be interviewed for the book, which harvests all his public comments, including his controversial support for Brexit. Some critics accuse him of being autocratic and authoritarian.
