Mick Lynch joined Lorraine Kelly to discuss his continued action to get the government and Network Rail to sit down with him and come to a new pay deal. Since striking and standing on the picket line, Mick has become a familiar face which left Lorraine to question whether that was his intention, to begin with.
Lorraine added: “Everyone just wants it to stop, we have had such a huge reaction knowing that you were in.
“What about personally, this has been a strange time for you and in a way you have almost become a kind of celebrity.
“We have seen you on Have I Got News For You, we have seen you on just about every news show, are you comfortable with that?
“Is there a part of you that almost enjoys that?”
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Mick shut down Lorraine’s question and revealed: “No, I don’t want to be a celebrity, I was a railway worker, a shift worker for nearly 35 years before I got elected to this job.
“I would much rather go back to my job of running the union and providing services for our members and negotiating a deal.
“If I didn’t have to do any of this profile stuff then I would much rather be in that position! My job is to articulate and represent our member’s cases.
“That is what I am here to do, that is what I try to do to the best of my ability, I have no desire to be famous.
@FlamingoBee1 exclaimed: “#MickLynch on #Lorraine. Standing up for workers with facts…..love it.”
@LeftyNoMore praised: “#MickLynch is sooooo great at getting the message across, I just wish there were more people like him in gov.” (sic)
Discussing his plans on sitting down with the government on Monday, 9 January, Mick explained: “We have an optimistic outlook because I need to make an agreement with the other parties, the employers and the government.
“It is a three-way conversation, we are meeting with the government on Monday, with the presidents of the companies, and I am hoping the government will facilitate this deal.
“I haven’t heard what it is that Network Rail has got to offer that is new, we have rejected their previous offer.
“Our members voted on that in the referendum, a very high turnout, so if they have something new to offer they will find us a good counterpart, and we will come to the table.
“In a spirit of compromise and a spirit of goodwill and I am hoping that we can get a good deal for our members and for the public, industry and the economy.
“All the users that want to see this thing settled but the government really needs to move on from an ideological movement to a practical position of trying to resolve the dispute.”
Lorraine airs weekdays from 9am on ITV.
