Dempsey has shut down questions on whether striking workers are "greedy" and false claims about union pay with skill and poise
Today, Eddie Dempsey will take over as RMT’s general secretary following the retirement of the legendary Mick Lynch. As he steps into the role, we look back at some of his most powerful takedowns of right-wing, anti-worker rhetoric – of which there are many.
It’s no surprise, then, that the right-wing press is getting worried about his appointment.
The Telegraph published an article yesterday describing Dempsey as “a longstanding ideologue of the hard-Left” and stating that critics fear he will push the agenda of the RMT “into further strikes – and even into more broader anti-government action across the trade union movement”.
“When are we going to ask if they [corporations] are being greedy?”
During the rail strikes in the summer of 2022, a reporter on the Jeremy Vine on 5 show posed a textbook right-wing question to Dempsey, asking whether rail workers were being “greedy” for striking for higher pay.
He said: “It’s a bit of a cheek having a programme asking trade unions if they’re being greedy for asking for a pay rise.”
“The FTSE 350 top companies in this country – their profits have gone up 73 per cent since 2019. When are we going to ask if they are being greedy?”.
The reporter then argued that the strike would impact “everyday people going to work, at the start of the Commonwealth Games.”
Dempsey shot back: “Listen, people will find it hard on a strike day but people will find it hard when it’s not a strike day because there’s people in this country spending 18% of their income travelling on trains when we’ve got the highest fares in Europe because profiteers have been robbing this country blind for years.”
“You only care about workers when they can’t get to work”
In another interview on Jeremy Vine on 5 in July 2022, Vine himself said rail passengers might have to factor in that for two or three days a month, when there might be no train service.
Daily Express columnist Carole Malone chimed in: “What I don’t get, Eddie, is why your right to strike is more important than other people’s right to get to work.”
Dempsey said: “Well Carole, I’ve got to say, you only seem interested in workers when they can’t get to work and we’re on strike. I’m more interested about what happens to workers when they get there.”
He stressed that his concern extends beyond workers on their way to work, highlighting that they have seen their living standards decline over the past 30 years, and stated, “Workers in this country need a pay rise.”
The Tories have delivered “Pain, lower wages, a fall in living standards”
Reflecting on the Tories’ legacy in government and what they have done for workers, Dempsey told Politics Joe: “Pain, lower wages, higher costs, a fall in living standards, insecurity at work, restrictive laws preventing them from striking, restrictive laws preventing them from protesting.”
He added: “They’ve done an awful lot for workers, and all of it has been negative, all of it has been very bad.”
Dempsey, speaking outside Parliament, explained that the RMT was protesting P&O Ferries’ shocking decision to fire 800 shipping staff in March 2022 via Zoom, while some were dragged off their vessels by private security guards.
He said the RMT was demanding that “bare minimum legal protections” for domestic workers be extended to seafarers, calling the situation “a national scandal”.
“They’re all up for their mates in the banks getting pay rises”
In an interview on TalkTV Julia Hartley-Brewer, also in 2022, grilled Dempsey on why the RMT had not been able to make a pay deal with Network Rail. Dempsey explained: “You have to appreciate Julia, everywhere where we’re not dealing with a company controlled by the Department for Transport, we’ve got a deal.”
Hartley-Brewer asked whether the government was not giving RMT an inflation-busting pay rise because it would lead to other public sector workers striking, adding “as a country we can’t afford to have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands ultimately across the public sector, millions, getting those sorts of pay rises”.
Dempsey fired back: “Well I tell you what Julia they soon stop worrying about pay rises when it’s their mates in the banks with their bonuses.
He continued: “They’ve very worried about us getting a pay rise but they’re all up for their mates in the banks getting them and the private companies making profits.”
Dempsey slams Jeremy Kyle’s false claims about Mick Lynch’s salary
Not only does Dempsey deliver strong arguments in defense of workers, but he’s also had to dismantle misleading claims about union pay put forward by the right-wing press.
In a June 2022 interview with Jeremy Kyle on TalkTV, Dempsey slammed Bank of England boss Andrew Bailey, who hypocritically called for pay restraint in annual wage increases despite earning £575,000 himself.
Jeremy Kyle used the comments to wrongly claim that Mick Lynch was on £124,000 a year, saying “why doesn’t he give £80,000 of his money to his trade union comrades”.
Dempsey clarified, “That’s what the Daily Mail says, but it’s not true,” and explained the right-wing press had included employer National Insurance contributions in their calculation. “That’s not how you work out someone’s pay, it’s just to get a soundbite,” he said.
“He doesn’t earn more than the prime minister, […] he doesn’t have a company car, he doesn’t live in a mansion, […] he’s just a former railway worker like myself who has been elected by his peers to represent them because he’s a good trade unionist,” Dempsey said.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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