Mick Whelan
The Guardian
What holds, and what fails, under pressure, standards and accountability.
Mick Whelan is the General Secretary of ASLEF, representing train drivers in the UK. This interview reveals his commitment to safeguarding the interests of his members while navigating the complexities of a privatized railway system.
“No. What they're meant to do is say hello to anybody you want, what they're not meant to do is ask you for a report or ask you to do any other duty. So for those of you who don't quite know how railway brakes work, you could be 10 and a half hours on duty, do five and a half hours in the seat without a break, which is...”
“It did a couple of weeks ago, I think we never quite understood why we were in the dispute. We didn't look for the dispute and we came through the COVID process and thought, right, we don't quite need the same approbations every other key worker, but yeah, we did make those decisions. We did get key workers to work.”
“Isn't our job to be successful? So we no longer applaud success in the UK. What we want is a race to the bottom and create the politics of envy. I found it incredibly odd.”
“Well, that's because we've kept the private motif within there. So let's have a look at a Ponzi scheme that was privatisation. If you can just bear with me for a second.”
Political Thinking with Nick Robinson — The Mick Whelan One
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