Photo by Charlie Forgham-Bailey for the New Statesman This interview was originally published on 12 August 2022, it has been repromoted following the news that more rail strikes will take place across the UK over the Christmas period. When Mick Lynch left school to become an apprentice electrician in 1978, trade unions were central to working-class life. “They used to have social clubs, sports clubs, cultural activities, art clubs, outings, holidays – all sorts of stuff that big companies used to provide,” the general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union told me one recent morning in his...