'Unions will never be satisfied,' Aslef boss warns just weeks after receiving massive pay deal
Mick Whelan on the Aslef picket line
PA
Trade union fat-cats will “never be content” with Labour’s concessions, Aslef’s chief has claimed.
Mick Whelan, who is general-secretary of the train driving union which recently struck a bumper pay deal with Sir Keir Starmer, warned there was nothing Labour could do to appease the movement completely.
Labour Ministers had claimed relations with unions were “entering a new era” but there will likely be more concerns about inflation-busting pay deals.
Aslef was offered a 14 per cent pay rise over three years, which will see the average driver’s salary rise from £60,000 to just under £70,000.
Mick Whelan on the Aslef picket linePAHe also claimed the Tories had treated Aslef with “utter contempt”.
Speaking at the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) rally on the fringes of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference in Brighton on Sunday, he said the movement as a whole would “never be content”.
Whelan was particularly uncomfortable with Labour’s position on Winter Fuel Payments and put pressure on Labour to deliver its New Deal for Working People.
He said: “What can we do? Well, we can do what we’ve always done.
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PA“We can campaign, we can protest, we can stand there, we can articulate the voices of the people that we represent, our unions, our families, our unions, what we believe, but then we’ve got to build upon it.
“So I’m not too worried about the ‘what if’ moment, if I’m honest, because even if we only got 40 per cent of what’s being promised, we’re 40 years better than we’ve been in the past.”
Whelan added: “So I am quite... not content, ’cos I’ll never be content, I’m an argumentative b****d.
"You might have gathered that. And the movement will never be content.
Labour has been criticised for offering train drivers a pay rise of 14 per cent over three years PA“While we have the lowest pensions in Europe and people then talking about not giving people their heating payments, I’m not content.”
In a warning to Starmer, Whelan concluded: “Politics isn’t a spectator sport. We need to roll up our sleeves and get involved.
“So, let’s pledge today. We will work with the new Government to rebuild our public services. We’ll play our part in recasting Britain’s industrial future.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has also signed off on an inflation-busting salary increase of 5.5 per cent for millions of public-sector staff at a cost of nearly £10billion.