Rail union leader Mick Lynch thinks Channel migrants should be given the same employment rights as British people immediately after arriving on boats
The rail union leader behind crippling strikes has said Channel migrants should be given the same employment rights as British people immediately after arriving, it emerged yesterday.
In a video clip unearthed by the Mail, Mick Lynch rants in a speech at a north London mosque.
During the address he also says public sector workers should be entitled to a year of sick pay and that people with ‘darker skin’ are getting ‘ripped off’ by employers.
The RMT boss’s comments were criticised by Tory MPs who accused the union leader of touring podiums to give ‘[Jeremy] Corbyn tribute acts’ rather than negotiating. Around 20,000 members of Mr Lynch’s union will strike today.
In the clip of the speech at the Central Mosque of Brent in November he said: ‘Every worker has the same rights as every other worker – and that’s whether you’ve been here as a migrant for a long time with your family, or whether you’re a new migrant seeking to come into the country, whether it be on a boat or whether it’s on an airplane.’
During the address Mick Lynch also says public sector workers should be entitled to a year of sick pay and that people with ‘darker skin’ are getting ‘ripped off’ by employers
He added: ‘What’s wrong with a full year of sick pay for people who have given their lives to our services? What’s wrong with a proper set of holidays above the statutory minimum?’
Suggesting ethnic minority workers are being discriminated against by employers, he adds: ‘You haven’t got to be a social scientist… to see who’s getting ripped off.
‘It’s the people with the darker skin, the people who are the migrants of this country.’
Tory party deputy chairman Lee Anderson said: ‘Mick Lynch is more interested in derailing the Government’s plan to stop the boats than allowing his members to vote on pay offers. Union barons should stop posturing as Corbyn tribute acts.’
Conservative MP Greg Smith said: ‘If Mick Lynch thinks everybody arriving illegally should be welcomed with open arms and given a house, given a job and no doubt a great deal more then I presume he’s opening his own front doors to welcome illegal migrants to live with him.’
The RMT was contacted for comment.
