The media and Mick Lynch

Strikes in the news. We know how this is meant to go. Smooth-talking reporter sidles up to union boss. Gets a few outdated quotes about solidarity, provides the killer punch giving the details of their personal pay package, and leaves them gasping in the dust, an outdated relic that can safely be ignored.

But somebody forgot to tell Mick Lynch. He’s bright, cheerful, friendly. He’s also totally on top of the factual detail which gives him a massive advantage. And he’s not scared of pointing that out, of demonstrating just how out of touch Pier Morgan and Kay Burley actually are. But he’s not angry, strident, pompous, like the caricature says; he’s down to earth, relaxed but very serious, because the cause he serves is an important one, which many people fail to understand.

It’s very much our shared loss that we’ve allowed the very idea of a union to sink into ridiculed oblivion, but now’s the ideal time to resurrect it - now that thousands of people’s economic survival is under threat. Mick Lynch, of course, is not the only one. There’s tons of smart, hard-working people trying to represent their members and promote the cause of justice, and it’s high time the media recognised that and gave them some respect.