Michael Joseph Cash (born 17 February 1960) is an English trade unionist, and the former general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT).
Cash was born in Laindon Hills, Basildon, Essex, [1] the third child of seven of Irish Travellers from County Kildare. [2]
He became a rail worker for British Rail in 1978, looking after railway signals at Watford Junction signal box West Coast Main Line. He was eventually elected assistant general secretary of the RMT, and was subsequently elected general secretary in September 2014, following the death of Bob Crow, defeating four other candidates. Cash retired as general secretary of the RMT in June 2021. [3]
He was a member of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee (NEC) until the RMT disassociated itself from the party in 2004, and remains a Labour Party member as he has been since 1982. [4] In that regard, he was widely considered as less radical than his predecessor, Bob Crow. [5]
He served as a Labour councillor on Watford Borough Council for 8 years, [4] [6] serving as the Deputy Leader of Watford Labour Group. [7]
He has been a vocal Brexiter urging the rail workers to vote against the European Union. [8] He then voiced concerns over other trade unions that were considering asking for a second referendum. [9]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cash criticised the Government in its handling of relaxing the lockdown, with him calling on public transport workers to "refuse to work" if they feel unsafe. [10] He also criticised the decision of the Department for Transport to force Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to place two special representatives on the board of Transport for London, stating "London transport workers have been vital to fighting COVID-19 and any attacks on their pay, jobs and conditions arising from this imposed settlement will be a complete betrayal." [11]
Cash is a keen football supporter, and follows Watford F.C. [12]
Robert Crow was an English trade union leader who served as the General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) from 2002 until his death in 2014. He was also a member of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC). A self-described "communist/socialist", he was a leading figure in the No to EU – Yes to Democracy campaign.
Christopher Stephen Grayling, Baron Grayling,, is a British politician and author who served as Secretary of State for Justice from 2012 to 2015, Leader of the House of Commons from 2015 to 2016 and Secretary of State for Transport from 2016 until 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Epsom and Ewell from 2001 to 2024. Before entering politics, Grayling worked in the television and film industry.
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers is a British trade union covering the transport sector. Its current President is Alex Gordon and its current General Secretary is Mick Lynch.
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James Knapp was a British trade unionist. He was successively General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) from 1983, and then of the merged National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) from 1990 to his death in 2001. He served on the executive board of the International Transport Workers' Federation from 1983 to 2001, the General Council of the Trades Union Congress from 1983 to 2001, and was President of the Trades Union Congress in 1994.
No2EU is a left-wing Eurosceptic electoral alliance in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 2009 when it campaigned under the campaign slogan No2EU — Yes to Democracy; it was led by Bob Crow and backed by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), who provided most of its funding, the Communist Party of Britain and Solidarity (Scotland) among others. It participated in the 2009 European Parliament elections and the European elections in 2014 with the party name "No2EU" and the campaign slogan No2EU — Yes to Workers' Rights.
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The awkward squad was an informal grouping of socialist trade unionists in the United Kingdom.
James Ian Mearns is a British Labour Party politician. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gateshead from 2010 to 2024. He was a member of and latterly Chair of the Socialist Campaign Group parliamentary caucus.
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The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and supports what it regards as existing socialist states. The party has fraternal relationships with the ruling parties in Cuba, China, Laos, and Vietnam. It is affiliated nationally to the Cuba Solidarity Campaign and the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign. It is a member of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, together with 117 other political parties. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the party was one of two original British signatories to the Pyongyang Declaration.
The Socialist Party is a Trotskyist political party in England and Wales. Founded in 1997, it had formerly been Militant, an entryist group in the Labour Party from 1964 to 1991, which became Militant Labour from 1991 until 1997. It is a member of the refounded Committee for a Workers' International, and the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.
Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom that operated the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland. It commenced operations on 1 March 2015, taking over from East Coast as a joint venture between Stagecoach (90%) and Virgin Group (10%).
Peter Pinkney is a British trade unionist, who served as President of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) from December 2012 until 2015.
Michael Lynch is a British-Irish trade unionist who has served as the General Secretary of the UK's National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers since May 2021. Since the high-profile rail strikes of 2022-2023, Lynch has become a spokesperson and symbol for the wider trade unionist movement.
On 17 March 2022, shipping company P&O Ferries dismissed 800 members of its shipping staff, primarily from the Port of Dover, but also from Kingston upon Hull, Liverpool and Cairnryan. The decision was met with much criticism from both sides of the political divide, particularly as a result of the speed and immediacy of the crews' termination notices, which in some cases consisted of a video call or text message, terminating their employment "with immediate effect". Also of concern was the fact that the crews were intended to be replaced with cheaper agency labour. The two main trades unions involved—the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) and Nautilus International—called for a boycott of the company and organised protests around the ports, but also outside parliament. P&O explained that for some time their business model had been impractical, resulting in losses of £100 million per annum, and that they needed to drastically reduce the wage bill to become profitable. Conversely, critics argued that the parent company, DP World, had paid out large dividends the previous year of £270 million, and had also made claims under the UK government's furlough scheme during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2022–2024 United Kingdom railway strikes were an industrial dispute between rail workers and companies, with the latter supported by the UK government. The rail workers are represented by several unions including the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) and the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF). The railway strikes commenced on 21 June 2022 after workers walked out over wages, planned changes to working practices – involving the removal of guards from trains, the reduction in the number of open ticket offices, and an increase in the age at which people could claim the young persons and senior citizen card – and the threat of redundancies. The industrial action was the largest in the sector since 1989, and involved 40,000 workers nationwide.
The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2022 is a statutory instrument of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The regulations removed Regulation 7 of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, which prevented employment agencies from supplying agency workers to employers to replace workers taking part in official industrial action. The regulations were struck down in a High Court case in July 2023, and were quashed from 10 August 2023.
Eddie Dempsey is the assistant general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), a trade union in the UK. He was elected in October 2021 to serve a five-year term until October 2026.