He’s essentially the most talked about man in the UK, a social media phenomenon whose skill to inform easy truths about equality and social justice has captured the creativeness of thousands and thousands struggling within the nation’s cost-of-living disaster, which may see many compelled to decide on between heating or consuming this winter.

But Mick Lynch, the union chief behind Britain’s ongoing rail strikes, a part of a wave of business motion sweeping the nation, wears his social media clout frivolously.

Till lately, he had by no means even heard of TikTok, the place his deft put-downs of TV interviewers intent on vilifying him as a hardline Marxist relic have attracted almost 20 million views.

“I might be promoting extra information than Beyonce off of that,” mentioned the shaven-headed 60-year-old, who took cost of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) final yr.

Proper now, he seems to be successful the battle for hearts and minds. However as his battle with rail bosses and the federal government intensifies – extra strikes are deliberate on August 18, 19, 20 – he’s removed from complacent.

‘I’ve obtained to get a deal’

“Folks have been programmed by media to hate us, however I’m glad to say they don’t hate us. They’ve been coming to strikes and giving muffins and occasional, making donations. It’s going effectively,” he informed Al Jazeera. “However I’m acutely aware I’ve obtained to get a deal.”

Lynch is making an attempt to barter higher pay and circumstances for tens of 1000’s of RMT members: signallers, upkeep employees, ticket collectors and cleaners.

Many of those workers, usually working unsocial hours in a high-pressure setting, have seen no pay rise in three years. Add inflation to the equation and it might be argued that they’ve acquired a pay reduce.

The spectre of hovering inflation, predicted to surpass 13 % subsequent yr, looms over negotiations. Critics say wage will increase will create an inflationary spiral.

It’s a declare that Lynch has been fast to garbage in media interviews, citing the thousands and thousands made collectively by a handful of rail bosses, who’re all too prepared to stint on workers’ wages.

Lynch is negotiating with what some name puppet rail operators, subsidised and straitjacketed by the federal government in a posh franchise system.

‘Minimal wages, minimal requirements’

The RMT maintains that firms on the gravy practice made £500m ($604m) in earnings final yr when passengers have been at an all-time low. Rail firms have disputed this determine, saying earnings solely amounted to a 3rd of RMT’s declare.

However past the nitty-gritty of the rail dispute, Lynch’s message has a common resonance. His eloquent calling-out of fats cats and rampant company earnings have hit house in a rustic bored with wage freezes and spiralling vitality costs, set to rise 77 % in October.

“Many employees don’t have anything to hold onto besides minimal wages and minimal requirements,” he mentioned.

With the media hype reaching fever pitch, Lynch has maintained his composure, successful plaudits for his measured and sometimes bemused method.

It takes rather a lot to rattle this Londoner, born to working-class Irish dad and mom and introduced up with 4 siblings, in what he has described as slum-like circumstances on a council property in Paddington.

A lot of his values stem from his tight-knit upbringing, his mum and pa working in low-paid jobs to lift their household.

“I’m pleased with my background, pleased with what my mum and pa achieved. They came to visit as youngsters and obtained on with it, introduced up 5 youngsters on the straight and slim,” Lynch mentioned.

He got here of age within the late 70s, a fertile period of latest concepts infused with the spirit of punk, a fan of bands akin to The Conflict, Buzzcocks and Eddie and the Sizzling Rods.

Labour’s Jim Callaghan was prime minister, submerged by nationwide strikes that got here to be often called the “winter of discontent”.

Lynch obtained an apprenticeship as an electrician, later shifting into development the place he was blacklisted for union exercise.

In 1993, he discovered work with Eurostar – a high-speed railway service connecting London with France, Belgium and The Netherlands – and joined the RMT, the place he would hone his straight-talking model by constructing one of many largest branches within the union.

‘Summer time of discontent’

Now as Britain enters the “summer time of discontent”, Lynch is within the eye of the storm.

The rail strikes, which additionally embrace London’s underground and overground community, are a part of a wave of business motion that’s set to get greater, with lecturers, well being employees and even barristers planning their very own strikes.

Public ire has been stoked by Liz Truss, the overseas minister, an odds-on favorite to turn out to be Britain’s subsequent prime minister, changing beleaguered incumbent Boris Johnson.

As a part of her marketing campaign, she has pledged to limit the power of public sector employees to strike. Below Truss, the nation is ready to swing to the exhausting proper, mentioned Lynch.

He believes it’s a wake-up name to the nation.

“Commerce unions are an natural response to what goes on in work and capitalism. You don’t must be a Marxist to grasp that,” he mentioned. “While you suppress [trade unions], you suppress individuals’s freedom. Folks have gotten to get up to that. Their rights are being corroded.”

Failing to help

The Labour Get together, which receives funding from a number of commerce unions (not together with the RMT), has come below hearth for failing to help placing employees.

Final month, Labour chief Keir Starmer fired one among his front-bench MPs for becoming a member of an RMT picket line – though he later tried to sidestep the following outrage by claiming the sacking was for giving unauthorised media interviews.

With attribute bluntness, Lynch has referred to as on Starmer to get again to fundamentals.

“He wants to seek out his identification as a politician and a socialist and articulate his values,” he mentioned. “The values ought to be everlasting. Council housing, utilities and vitality coverage, a good deal at work. I feel individuals would actually riff off that, whether or not he stands on a picket line or not.”

However he’s a pragmatist at coronary heart.

“I simply need a forceful and assertive Labour Get together to win the following election,” he mentioned. “The subsequent Tory authorities goes to be extraordinarily harmful. It’s higher for us if Starmer wins.”

For now, Lynch is using excessive. However with negotiations set to tug on, he’s conscious that public opinion may shift.

“Your inventory might be up one week, but when the tide turns, it may go the opposite means,” he mentioned.

Definitely, he has no scarcity of enemies who would welcome that prospect.

“I’ve obtained photographers following me, going via my social media, checking what my spouse and youngsters are doing. They’ve at all times performed that to commerce union leaders,” Lynch mentioned.

“We’re successful the social media battle as a result of our arguments are robust. If we hadn’t taken motion, all would have been misplaced,” he mentioned. “Now, we all know they’re taking it very severely.”