Dressed as a gangster, union boss bringing misery to commuters
IN A fedora and with a replica pistol concealed in his waistband at a Mafia-themed party, this is the £120,000-a-year union boss behind the crippling rail strikes threatened this week.
In another photograph, taken at a Titanic-inspired get-together, Mick Whelan is shown with his arm around his wife, Lorraine Phelan MBE – who is resplendent in pearls – as they prepare to tuck into a salmon and caviar dinner.
Mr Whelan, general secretary of the train drivers’ union Aslef, plans to bring misery to commuters with Tube strikes on Wednesday and Thursday.
The dispute brought London to a standstill earlier this month when the entire Tube network was closed down for the first time since 2002. Left-winger Mr Whelan – who has compared the Government to the Nazis – accuses transport bosses of a ‘failure to make a decent pay offer’ over plans to bring in a 24-hour Tube service next month.
Union bosses claim London Underground is trying to make staff work more weekend and night shifts for no extra pay.
Mr Whelan claims to represent ‘ordinary, hard-working men and women’, yet he lives a life of luxury, and the Tube drivers he represents start on almost £50,000 a year for a 36-hour week.
The Daily Mail can reveal that while his union held a strike ballot in June, the Chelsea fan was enjoying an extravagant holiday on the Algarve with some friends to celebrate his 55th birthday.
While there his wife boasted on Facebook: ‘Cannot believe it. It’s 9.30 in the morning and on my 2nd vodka and diet coke.’
Mr Whelan, 55, lives in a £500,000 house in Wembley, north-west London, with his 59-year-old wife, a biomedical scientist.
At the Mafia party in 2012, he posed with fellow ‘gangsters and molls’.
The couple were also photographed at the Titanic party dressed as passengers clutching orange life jackets.
An Aslef spokesman said: ‘Mick does not discuss what he does in his free time, or whilst on holiday with family and friends, with third parties.’