The ‘Lynch mob’ taking on the might of Dubai in furious P&O Ferries row: Heads of one of Britain’s most militant unions including gun-toting Tory hater who said he’d ‘throw a party’ if Boris dies in stand-off with Sheikh and Sultan over sacked staff
- Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) is led by General Secretary Mick Lynch
- He’s notorious among London commuters as public face of recent Tube strikes
- One of his deputies, Steve Hedley, hoped ‘the whole Cabinet’ got coronavirus
- The union bosses’ ultimate adversary is the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed
The battle against P&O Ferries lies in the hands of Britain’s most militant trade union – including a gun-toting Tory hater who said he’d ‘throw a party’ if Boris Johnson died of Covid.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) is led by General Secretary Mick Lynch, whose name is now notorious among London commuters as the public face of a recent wave of crippling Tube strikes.
Reporting to him is Assistant General Secretary Steve Hedley, a controversial figure whose sickening comments when the Prime Minister was taken to A&E while gravely ill during the pandemic caused widespread disgust. Today, he called on the government to nationalise P&O Ferries.
Completing the ‘Lynch Mob’ is RMT National Secretary Darren Procter. Elected to his role in 2018, he has a lower public profile but has also played a prominent role in the battle for the rights of P&O Ferries employees.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) is led by General Secretary Mick Lynch (seen rallying protesters today outside Maritime House in Dover)
Reporting to him is Assistant General Secretary Steve Hedley, a controversial figure who mocked Boris Johnson while he was gravely ill with Covid
The RMT leadership yesterday urged its members to stage a sit-in on their ships – only for them to be forced to disembark by hired heavies equipped with handcuffs.
The union faces a powerful foe in the form of Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, CEO of P&O Ferries’ owner DP World, while behind him stands Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai’s ruler who owns a majority stake in DP World’s parent company.
The sheikh, who has a net worth of $4bn, was recently ordered by an English court to pay his ex-wife Princess Haya a record-breaking divorce settlement of more than £500m.
This followed a ‘sustained campaign of intimidation and threat’, which included ordering the kidnapping of his two daughters.
Mick Lynch – who once sighed ‘All I want from life is a bit of socialism’ – collects a pay packet worth some £124,886.
He has described P&O Ferries’ move to sack 800 staff and replace them with cheap agency workers as ‘one of the most shameful acts in the history of British industrial relations’.
Completing the ‘Lynch Mob’ is RMT National Secretary Darren Procter. Elected to his role in 2018, he has a lower public profile but has also played a prominent role in the battle for the rights of P&O Ferries employees
The union faces powerful foes in the form of Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, CEO of P&O Ferries’ owner DP World (left) and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (centre), Dubai’s ruler who owns a majority stake in DP World’s parent company
The sheikh, who has a net worth of $4bn, was recently ordered by an English court to pay his ex-wife Princess Haya a record-breaking divorce settlement of more than £500m
The Sheikh owns horse racing operations in Ireland, the US and Australia, a £385million 500ft superyacht (pictured)
An aerial view of the Beach Palace of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed in Dubai
Steve Hedley, meanwhile, shared his thoughts about the dispute on BBC’s Good Morning Ulster, where he insisted it proves ‘the complete imbalance between employer and employee and trade union’.
An avid Corbynite who receives a salary of £100,000 a year, he greeted the news of Boris Johnson by writing on Facebook, ‘I don’t want to offend you but if Bojo pops his clogs I’m throwing a party.’
He then hit back at friends who criticised him, telling them: ‘I hope the whole cabinet of Tory b*stards get it too.’
The Lynch Mob’s enemy, P&O Ferries, is run by one of the world’s largest logistics firms that is itself owned by the controversial ruling family of Dubai.
Since 2006, the ferry operator has been controlled by either DP World or previously its parent business Dubai World.
The historic Longcross estate, near Chobham in Surrey, was purchased by Sheikh Mohammed in the 1990s as a place to escape the stifling summer heat in the Gulf
Sheikh Mohammed snapped up the historic Dalham Hall in 2009 for £45m, to serve as a stud farm near to Newmarket race course
The grade II-listed house is eight miles west of Bury St Edmunds and comes complete with 3,300-acres of land
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum’s 63,000-acre estate in the Scottish Highlands boasts a 14-bedroom holiday mansion and a triple helipad
DP World’s CEO and Chairman is Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, a well-connected Emirati businessman whose father was an advisor to the Maktoum family, currently headed by UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Sheikh Mohammed is also the majority stakeholder in Dubai World, the current parent company of DP World.
With a huge portfolio of businesses and projects that manages more than 70 million shipping containers a year, the firm boasts significant business interests and reported a $896million (£683m) profit last year.
Despite this, at the start of the pandemic P&O Ferries were among the firms to apply for a £150m government bailout to mitigate the reported £257million impact of coronavirus on its trade.
Speaking to the BBC at the time, CEO Sulayem criticised the government’s response as ‘slow’ while adding that P&O Ferries had furloughed 1,400 workers.
His request for the money came as DP World shareholders were expecting a dividend of £270m.
Sulayem seen with Prince William and former Foreign Secretary William Hague at an Earthshot Prize event at Dubai’s Expo2020 earlier this year
Having become a prominent face in Dubai, Sulayem has looked to make his mark on businesses and projects in the UK and US.
He is chairman of the Virgin Hyperloop One vacuum train project, and has been pictured meeting with ex chairman Richard Branson.
Sulayem’s DP World has also become a Global Alliance Founding Partner of the Earthshot Prize scheme, established by Prince William, and has donated £1million for prize recipients.
Sulayem was seen speaking with the prince and former Foreign Secretary William Hague at an Earthshot Prize event at Dubai’s Expo2020 earlier this year.
Awkwardly for the government, DP World also owns Thames Freeport – one of eight of Boris Johnson’s flagship ‘Freeports’ that are being established around the UK.
Union mob turns on MP as angry P&O Ferries protests break out at ports in Dover, Liverpool and Hull
By Martin Robinson, Chief Reporter
‘Tory hating’ union members turned on Dover’s Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke today when she came out to support them over P&O Ferries’ ‘jobs massacre’ of 800 crew.
Mrs Elphicke even held a ‘save Britain’s ferries’ banner at the event with Labour’s hard-left former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and amid calls for the Dubai-owned business to hand back their £10million furlough cash, she said: ‘We supported them with furlough and they should be backing Britain and backing Dover’.
But when she began speaking on TV about the sackings being ‘devastating’ for the Kent town, union activists started screaming: ‘We hate Tories, we are the Tory haters’, ‘shame on you’, ‘you’re on their side’ and ‘you voted for fire and rehire’, forcing her to abandon her interview.
One protester confronted her saying: ‘Tory anti-union laws allow bosses to get away with this’. The Conservative MP replied: ‘Nonsense, it’s bad business behaviour’ before she walked off as others yelled in her face.
The picket then marched on the docks, where police are parked at the entrance to the freight terminal and three P&O ferries – Pride Of Canterbury, Pride of Kent and Spirit of Britain – all remain docked. There appeared to be agency staff already working on the ships with security guarding the gangplanks. There were also protests in Hull, attended by Ed Miliband, as well as in Liverpool and Belfast, where police guarded the ports as union members called for ministers to ‘sink P&O’ by nationalising it.
It came as MailOnline revealed the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are being urged to cut ties with the Dubai owners of P&O Ferries and campaign to stop the redundancies as calls also grew for the Government to claw back £10million in furlough cash. Unions have accused the company of turning UK ferries into ‘modern slave ships’ with cheap labour.
One sacked worker at Hull told MailOnline that the agency workers brought in to replace them were on as little as £2 to £3 an hour, compared with the £28 to £30 hourly rate paid to British sailors.
A new video also showed the brutal and undignified way DP World treated sacked P&O staff yesterday, where security told the crew they had ‘two hours to pack up’ and get off the ferry just minutes after being sacked on Zoom.
The hired heavy in a high-viz told the group of shocked staff: ‘I think two hours would be a reasonable time for you to pack your stuff up and be ready to leave’. The workers replied in chorus: ‘We need to talk to the union’, to which the security guard, backed by colleagues, said bluntly: ‘That’s fine but you’ve got two hours’.
As P&O Ferries’ failed to set a date to restart services and faces a boycott from Britons irate over the sacking scandal, it also emerged today:
- Devastated workers described dedicating their working lives to the company only to be sacked by video and thrown off their ships with their belongings in bin bags;
- P&O claimed £10million in furlough cash during the pandemic – and tried and failed to get a £150million Government bailout. There are calls for the Dubai-owned business to hand any taxpayers’ money back;
- Downing Street has warned P&O Ferries that there could be ‘ramifications’ over its decision to sack some 800 seafarers. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps will consider the removal of public contracts;
- Employment lawyers have said the company faces ‘a hell of a lot of unfair dismissal claims’ and the company’s directors could also end up in the dock and face criminal prosecutions for failure to follow redundancy consultation rules;
- P&O Ferries handles 15% of UK freight and a third into Dover from France. Experts predict that there will be serious supply chain problems for fresh food, booze and engineering parts if the ships don’t start moving again soon;
Local MP Natalie Elphicke clashes with protesters gathered in support of sacked P&O Ferry workers at Dover in Kent
Mrs Elphicke was blamed by the union members and crew she had turned up to support
Backed by a team of hired heavies, this security guard told P&O staff they had ‘two hours’ to clear off the ship after they were sacked by Zoom yesterday
P&O Ferries crisis: The lowdown
What’s going on?
P&O Ferries has made 800 workers redundant and replaced them with cheaper agency staff.
Can it do that?
Unions have threatened legal action and lawyers suggested workers could bring unfair dismissal claims. Tom Long, partner at law firm Shakespeare Martineau, said the move ‘appears to contravene the requirements needed for a normal mass redundancy’.
Booked a ferry?
P&O Ferries was updating guidance over Twitter every half an hour yesterday. On some routes, including Dover to Calais, it advised customers to show up as usual and make their way to check-in booths run by ferry company DFDS. On others, such as between Larne and Cairnryan, the firm suggested customers only travel if essential.
Other options?
If you are travelling in the near future you can book on an alternative carrier. DFDS and Irish Ferries offer routes between Dover and Calais. There are no direct alternatives for the other routes but Stena Line offers services to Ireland and Holland.
Refunds?
The firm has not commented but its terms and conditions say it will refund the ‘total fare’ of a crossing if ‘we cannot ship you at all with us or arrange a suitable alternative ferry crossing, or if you do not wish to take any alternative journey offered by us’.
And P&O Cruises?
P&O Cruises is owned by a different company and is not affected by the disruption.
Dover and Deal MP Natalie Elphicke joined workers ahead of their march – but it turned ugly as unionists started singing ‘We hate tories, we are the tory haters’.
She had been speaking to reporters about the the P&O Ferries job losses when some union members began shouting ‘shame on you’.
The Conservative representative said: ‘It’s absolutely been a stab in the back for P&O workers.
‘They need to rethink and change their minds. They need to reinstate these jobs and make sure they back Dover as we have backed them.
‘We have supported them and worked with them for decades – especially throughout the pandemic.’
‘My understanding is they’ve decided to throw over the loyal and hardworking workers here in Dover and put in agency workers.
‘It’s not acceptable, it’s not the way to behave and they should not have just given notice in the way they did and sacked everyone.
‘We have worked very closely with P&O during the pandemic. Myself, the unions and ministers have supported them with furlough and they should be backing Britain and backing Dover.’
Asked if the Maritime minister was given pre-warning of P&O Ferries’ plans, she said: ‘The minister made it clear in Parliament that he had spoken with the P&O chief executive the same day as the rest of us which was Thursday and I had a conversation with the CEO and left him in no doubt that his actions were disgusting, unnecessary and they shouldn’t be doing it.
‘I’ve been speaking to the Union and I know they’re exploring all legal actions and the government is looking at what action is available.
‘It’s absolutely unacceptable for P&O and DP World to act in the way they have. They should reverse their decision. This is not the way we expect business to behave in the UK.
‘It was appalling to have security with handcuffs forcibly trying to take people off the boats. It’s a disgusting way to behave.’
The group started marching down the A20 at 12.20pm chanting ‘seize the ships now’ and ‘whose ships? Our ships’.
Lorries queue to enter a ferry terminal at the Port of Dover, following an announcement made by P&O Ferries, outside Dover today
P&O carries a third of freight between the UK and France. Their ferries are not moving because of the dispute, causing problems
Around 200 people made the 20 minute walk to the Port of Dover before standing on the roundabout blockading the entrance while union leaders made speeches.
After around 15 minutes, police urged protesters to clear one lane so traffic could pass, which demonstrators complied with while listening.
The group dispersed at 1.20pm and began walking back to the Union headquarters.
No 10 has said it is probing P&O’s firing of 800 staff over claims it was unlawful – with Boris Johnson’s spokesman refusing to rule out firm being stripped of public contracts if found to have broken employment rules.
‘We are looking very closely at the actions that this company has taken to see whether they acted within the rules,’ the spokesman said.
‘Once we have concluded that, we will decide what the ramifications are. Obviously there are a lot of valid questions in relation to existing contracts, etc.
‘We are working through exactly the detail of what action the company took. Once we have have come to that conclusion, we will set out any further steps’.
The protest left the RMT Union HQ and headed for the port where the P&O Ferries’ ships are moored and not moving
Downing Street has said ministers do not believe P&O explored all possible avenues to secure the future of their business before making staff redundant.
‘We expect companies to treat employees fairly,’ the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.
‘It is only in extreme circumstances that employers need to make extreme decisions to secure the future of their business if all other avenues have failed, including negotiations between employer and employee.
‘We don’t believe this was the case for P&O staff but we are looking into this very carefully.
‘The actions this company took yesterday are deeply disappointing and will be causing deep upset amongst loyal staff.’
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham attended the Liverpool protest and branded the sackings as ‘gangster practice’ – and called for P&O Ferries to be nationalised.
Lorry congestion at the port in Dover today. There has been uproar and condemnation from UK government ministers and trade unions following the sacking of hundreds of British P&O Ferries staff
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