Leading London-Irish trade unionist Mick Lynch is to be honoured with the Cork 2023 Spirit of Mother Jones Award in recognition of his campaigning work to protect the pay and conditions of rail workers in the UK.
Mr Lynch, whose father Jackie emigrated from Cork to the UK in 1941 and whose mother, Ellie Morris, left Crossmaglen in Co Armagh, was born in Paddington in London in 1962 and trained as an electrician before becoming involved in the trade union movement.
Cork Mother Jones Committee spokesman James Nolan said that Mr Lynch was a worthy recipient of the Spirit of Mother Jones Award, established in recognition of the tireless campaigning of Cork-born, American labour activist, Mary Harris, aka Mother Jones who worked for miners’ rights in the US.
“Mick Lynch with strong Cork roots was appointed General Secretary of the National Union of Railway, Transport and Marine workers in 2021 and has led the fight to defend his members’ working conditions and pay as well as trying to protect the public and community services,” he said.
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“We believe that Mick Lynch by his direct action, solid analysis, straight talking and plain speaking in defence of workers and union rights, has won widespread support and respect among working people both in Britain and here in Ireland,” he added.
Mr Nolan said Mr Lynch’s ability to ground his arguments in solid facts and eloquently express his points in the face of Tory Party opposition to investment in public services, including the National Health Service had earned him the admiration of many as they recognise the validity of his position.
“Over the past few years Mick’s appearances on television have guaranteed enormous media interest as he systematically and forensically destroyed the arguments of political commentators, the Right wing press and Tory MPs who argued against workers’ pay increases.
“Mick and the RMT have been to the forefront of the defence of workers’ pay and conditions in the UK privatised rail sector and have also organised opposition to the closure of tickets offices at railway stations, justifiably arguing that this discriminates against older, weaker and non tech savvy people.”
Mr Nolan said the Cork Mother Jones Committee was proud to honour the Cork diaspora leading the fight for better working and living conditions for workers abroad as Mother Jones had done in the United States where her activism earned her the sobriquet “the most dangerous woman in America”.
Mr Lynch, who lists Irish revolutionary socialist, James Connolly among his heroes, is a regular visitor to Cork and frequently attends Cork City FC games at Turners Cross and famously once remarked: “I’d support Cork in anything, even in tiddlywinks, if they had a team.”
Mr Lynch is one of several international winners of The Spirit of Mother Jones Award and follows in the footsteps of fellow British trade unionist, Dave Hopper of the Durham Miners Association, Hillsborough campaigners, Margaret Aspinall and Sue Roberts, and civil rights lawyer Gareth Pierce.
Among the Irish winners are homeless advocate, Fr Peter McVerry, children’s rights campaigner, Louise O’Keeffe, anti-apartheid activist, Mary Manning, Stardust campaigner, Antoinette Keegan and Cork educational campaigner Don O’Leary who won the award in 2022.
The award will be presented to Mr Lynch after he delivers an address at the Cork Firkin Crane in Shandon on Thursday at 4pm as part of the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival.
