RMT's Mick Lynch describes first meeting with new Transport Secretary as a 'good start'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has described his first meeting with new Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan as a 'good meeting with a positive attitude'.

Rail strikes are planned for October 1, 5, and 8, as the long-running dispute over pay and conditions rumbles on. Just days after stepping into her new role, Ms Trevelyan met Mr Lynch.

Speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sky News on Sunday, Mr Lynch said that it was a 'good meeting'. Read more: Woman rushed to hospital with serious injuries after horror hit-and-run “What we need to see from the new secretary of state is the ability to unblock the problems in the dispute,” he said. “Her predecessor seemed to be putting obstacles in the way of everyone, including the employers, by shackling them to a mandate that was impossible to deliver. “They were putting down issues that we could never accept, and the other trade unions could never accept.

So I’ve asked the new secretary of state, and it was a good meeting with a positive attitude and a bit of goodwill, to try and unthaw this situation. “We need to get the thing out of deep freeze and get it on the table so we can work through the problem.” He added that Ms Trevelyan’s willingness to meet and shake hands was “the better way to conduct business”. “If somebody wants to meet you and shakes your hand, that’s a positive start,” he said. “It’s the better way to conduct business than than just slagging each other off, and that’s not what I’m into, and I hope that she’s not either.” However, Mr Lynch was critical of the Government, describing the tightening of strike laws as “an attack on civil liberties and human rights”.