Mick Whelan of Aslef: ‘We don’t have a choice but to strike. It’s existential for us’
T here have been moments this year when both sides in the interminable rail dispute have made positive sounds, suggesting a resolution could be close. But as Mick Whelan, leader of Aslef, holds forth from his desk at the train drivers’ union HQ, it becomes clear this is not one of them.
Pay talks have foundered and Whelan is fuming at the rail firms and the government, whose “dead hand” he sees as sabotaging progress: “I’ve never dealt with such dissembling, deceitful, disingenuous, dishonourable people in my 38 years of operating on all levels of this industry.”
Aslef, which traditionally has been less inclined to strike than sister rail union RMT, is now at the forefront of the battle. Drivers will strike on 12 May, the eve of the Eurovision final in Liverpool, as well as on 31 May and FA Cup final day, 3 June – a set of dates that has led ministers and tabloids to accuse Whelan of targeting Ukrainians watching Eurovision and spiking the two Manchester teams’ day at Wembley.
Whelan denies both, although perhaps objects more strenuously to the Ukraine accusations; he breaks briefly into song for the chant London teams love to direct at Manchester United fans: “You only live round the corner!”
His office in Clerkenwell is cluttered with the paraphernalia of a Chelsea fan, albeit one leading an internationalist and socialist organisation. Old match tickets and a Chelsea gnome sit on his desk beside a book on Julian Assange; pennants of campaigns supporting Colombian political prisoners and Ukrainian rail workers hang in front of a calendar stuck on July 2012, when Whelan was in his first year as general secretary.
He’s been busy since. These days, Whelan has been cast as a man who can decide if the trains will run – although,
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