TUC boss Frances O'Grady targets more victories and more new members ahead of congress

The first female general secretary has proved to be a quietly effective lobbyist, but is more than willing to mix it up when she needs to. Now she’s turning her attention to millions of maltreated young workers who she wants to recruit

It would be most unwise to bet against Frances O’Grady securing more victories (AFP)

“Believe it or not this represents light relief,” TUC director general Frances O’Grady says as we sit down for coffee.

There’s not many that would say that ahead of a grilling from a journalist like me. There’s not many that would dare.

O’Grady, however, is currently working at breakneck pace ahead of the 149th congress, so it’s understandable. And she has such a disarming charm that it’s impossible to be offended.

That charm has been put to good use. MPs from an extreme and backward looking Conservative Party might still ritually decry the union movement. Outside of its confines, the mood music is very different.

Groups ranging from the Institute of Directors, to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, have either worked with, or had positive things to say about it, or both.

More recently, O’Grady secured a notable victory when the Commission on Economic Justice declared that stronger unions should play an important role in securing the economic reforms Britain desperately needs.

O’Grady sits on that commission alongside luminaries from business, academe and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Some of its members would not be what you’d necessarily call her natural allies so securing their support for that was a real achievement.

“We will work with anyone,” she says, and she clearly means it. “We are open to listening, discussing, debating about how we can make things work well, work better.”

One of the reforms the TUC would like to see is an end to the use of zero-hours employment contracts.

But, I say, playing devil’s advocate by laying down an argument used by those who would criticise a ban, what about those who like the flexibility they offer?

O’Grady has a ready answer: “The average people on zero hours work is 25 hours. I want those people to have that guaranteed as a right and not just to have the right to request it which will end up getting refused.

“We can discuss how it might work in practice, but if they’re working 25 hours, or whatever, week in, week out, then give them the right to those hours so they can plan their lives in a way that they can’t at the moment.

“The flexibility that is often talked about, it ought to be a two-way street. Too often it is a one-way street in favour of the employer. Offering a right to request guaranteed hours, that will make no difference to all those workers at Sports Direct, or McDonalds, or to delivery drivers.

“People don’t feel they have the power to ask. The don’t want to be seen as the trouble maker, they don’t want to risk not getting any shifts next week. If they’re already getting treated badly, they’re not going to make that request are they?”

O’Grady is concerned about the growing acceptance, particularly among the young, of practices that she considers to be completely unacceptable, practices that wouldn’t have been acceptable even in the relatively recent past.

“People think it’s normal to be bullied at work, to have their wages withheld, to have surveillance systems that track them while they are at work,” she says, shaking her head.

“Most people, they want to do a good job and they want to be proud of their company too. But they also want to be treated fairly and with respect.”

This is where her easy manner disappears. Now she is speaking with passion, and with a degree of anger too.

O’Grady has quietly become a very effective lobbyist behind the scenes. But she can mix it up if she needs to, as she showed in calling Prime Minister Theresa May out over her scapegoating of immigrants, as I reported on Wednesday.

“The problem is that weak politicians like using migrants and other vulnerable people as human shields for their own failings,” she said memorably.

However, that doesn’t mean she won’t work with the Government if it proves willing to work with her, as it should.

“Our job is to represent people whoever is in power. I’m very mindful of that. I’m mindful that we are a very broad church. We are practical people that want to make work much better. We are great pragmatists, negotiating is what we do and we know negotiating involves making trades and compromises. We know we’re not going to get everything we want. But we have clear principles and values about what we are trying to achieve.”

And while the union movement is close to the Labour Party, that doesn’t mean it agrees on everything. Take Brexit, of which she says: “We’re of our own school. The clear priority and test for us is that it protects jobs and workers’ rights.”

Given the tumult in British society, and in the British economy, one would think there would be a golden opportunity for the union movement to take steps to turn around the decline in membership that it has suffered.

There is, as I have written, a clear need for it if the decline in wages in Britain is to be reversed. Part of the reason for that, for the end of the annual pay round in many workplaces, can be linked to a decline in collective bargaining.

But how can that be achieved, particularly given one of the things that most concerns the TUC’s leader about life in modern Britain: the rise of the working poor, parts of which miss meals just to keep the wolf from the door. How can people struggling to afford food run to union subs?

“There are always issues we have to look at, and subs are among them. But really, they are very low compared with what you find in other countries. Most of our unions have reductions according to income. They’ve changed a lot to make systems more sensitive.

“I think we can make use of the digital revolution, that new technology can be a door to more than just fattening Uber’s revenues. We can use it too. Next year is our 150th anniversary. We could use it to celebrate the past, but I think the best way to mark it is to make breakthroughs for the future. We are conscious, for example, of the number of young people who are not union members, but who very clearly share our values and who we need to reach.

“I think the best we can encourage them, and to encourage union membership more widely, is by winning.”

She cites not only the publicity given to the recent groundbreaking first strike by McDonalds members as an example of what unions can do, but perhaps even more importantly, the victory won by Unison at the Supreme Court over the fees that had been imposed to access employment tribunals by the Government of David Cameron.

O’Grady describes this as “fantastic” while calling upon the Government to place ads to encourage those who might have used the service, might have needed the service, but were put off by the fees, to come forward.

“Only a union could have done that. Who else would have had the money and the mission? There’s nothing like success to encourage people to join and there are still breakthroughs we can achieve, victories we can win.”

It would be most unwise to bet against Frances O’Grady securing more of them.