The Times whose owner Rupert Murdoch and Editor Tony Gallagher are not elected or accountable to anyone have long failed to understand that trade union leaders are not ‘barons’ or ‘chiefs’ but officials who are elected by their members to carry out the democratic decisions of union conferences.
Of course union GS’s don’t always do that but as a Times Editorial (11th Jan) on RMT GS Mick Lynch who is standing down had to admit that is more or less what he actually did. Some might wish he had done ever more but the Times is obviously not in that camp.
Mick Lynch’s successor will be announced in May after a vote by members. Currently thanks to Tory anti-union laws, turn out will likely be quite low as e-voting is illegal. The present Government is set to change that. The bigger a democratic mandate union leaders get from members the more than can face down the unelected media barons who attack them
well said Keith