TUC President's Address - Congress 2007

Address by the TUC Congress President, Alison Shepherd

Introduction

It is customary for the President to give the keynote speech on the first day of Conference - and normally the first major contribution of the Congress week. Given that I have left it to Brendan to answer all the difficult questions this year, it suited me to let him to get his retaliation in first on this occasion - and to prove that the TUC doesn't have to do everything the same way each time. It's not every President who gets the TUC General Secretary and the Prime Minister to do the warm up act for them either.

Over the past few weeks, by way of research I have read a number of presidential speeches - which at least indicated to me that I had a fairly free hand and could do as I wanted. It also occurred to me that with the way we have planned the agenda and all the speakers we have this week, a shorter rather than longer speech might be welcome, so that you as delegates from your unions can have a good opportunity to get on with the main business of conference and bring forward the policies you would like us to establish.

Review of year as President

Many people have asked what the highlight of my presidential year has been (perhaps prompting for overseas travel). It has been very difficult to come up with a simple answer. In truth it has all been genuinely interesting; I have done things that I enjoy doing, no ttwo weeks have been the same (even Mondays have been good) and it has been great to see and participate in the very varied activities that our trade unions do every day to help our members and that goes for anywhere in the world - trade unions make life better for working people and their communities - they make a difference.

My core duties which were chairing the General Council and the Executive - this may not be everyone's choice, but I have enjoyed them and I would like to thank all my General Council colleagues for their commitment, engagement, good humour and complimentary contributions to improving the way that we work, in making our meetings meaningful and ensuring that we have considered all the current relevant issues of the day. We do not always agree - but we are a very diverse movement and the important thing is that we honestly represent our trade unions and the members that make them up. Mentioning overseas visits, earlier rather than later I need to tell you about the Nigeria Labour Congress. The NLC is a very good friend of the TUC and in February, Bandula from the International Dept and I flew out to Abuja for a couple of days to participate in their Congress. It was well organised in a very business-like manner, but timings tend to be a bit elastic. The final day was to end with elections of the new leadership. Corruption is something that happens in civil life in Nigeria, but the trade union movement knows how to conduct itself and how to run scrupulous elections. In short after a conference session of some nine hours without a break, the delegates cleared the hall and, individually validated, returned to stand in line casting individual votes in each delegation in transparent ballot boxes for a whole series of elections. We overseas visitors called it a day at 11 that evening and when I went to the airport the next morning I asked what the outcome was, to be told that the delegates were still there...I know that a number of you will find it hard to stay in your seats for more than an hour or two during the course of this Congress...so just reflect on the visible demonstration of democracy that was so important to our NLC friends.

In our dealings with our Government, the FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) and DFID (International Development), we always stress the importance of working with country trade unions, we made sure that we told them that the Nigerian Labour Congress has a lot to offer.

Trade union unity

I can't stress how important I believe it to be that we have a single trade union centre in the UK (I also include in that the Scottish TUC and Wales TUC), where unions can come together, work together, campaign together, sort out problems between each other and speak with one voice.

My year as President saw the inauguration of the ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation), the new world trade union body, and I am very pleased to welcome ITUC President Sharan Burrow to Congress this week. I recall Sharan delivering one of the best lines ever on the issue of unions and gender balance and the importance that some trade unions do not always place in fulfilling their obligations in electing women to positions of power. (Reading our Equality Audit report at Congress this week - we do not need to be too self congratulatory about it either). 'We are here We are not going away - so you had better get used to it' (Sharan can say this so much better than I can). And I would also like to welcome another sister President, this time of the European TUC - Wandja Lundby-Wedin, also with us this week.

Reflecting our members

Which brings me neatly on to one of my themes this year: the importance of reflecting the diversity of our membership in our leadership. I have spoken about this wherever I have gone - the TUC Women's, Black, and LGBT conferences, to name but three. I have said that I am the third woman president in a row, (and there were others before) but each of us, Jeannie, Gloria and I, are different with different skills, abilities, interests and roles in our trade union lives.

I am a lay member - that is one with a 'proper job' (only kidding) who joined the union in my workplace and has risen through a series of elected representative positions to become President of the TUC. So I know all about the juggling that you have to do to do your own work and to fulfil your union responsibilities (the member with an urgent problem that materialises just as you are focusing on a crucial work deadline, the manager who you haven't seen all week who turns up when you are about to slide away to a union meeting). I work in a university and I wouldn't have done what I have done without the support of my colleagues and most of my local managers. I have had my ups and downs over the years - currently fairly up, with the university tending to see unions as part of the solution rather than part of the problem (probably a bit of kudos with having one of your employees as President of the TUC too).

I've taken the view that 'If you hang around long enough you can become President of the TUC'. Although as some of my friends want to point out there is of course more to it than that - this role that I now occupy should be one that every member of a trade union or everyone working for a trade union can reasonably see themselves aspiring to. The last lay member to hold this position - Rita Donaghy (who then went on to become chair of ACAS) did some research, and she found that she was only the second lay member President in 139 years of TUC history, that makes me the third - and I am sure that this statistic can be improved very shortly.

Lay members, past, present and future

I did want to spend some time today talking about the role of lay members in our movement past, present and future - and putting a price on our value. We are the largest voluntary organisation in Britain. We are the difference between a worker treated fairly and a worker exploited; between a job saved and a job lost; between a workplace where safety, equality and learning matter and a workplace where they do not. We are 250,000 volunteers. We know our reps give up more than just their time - as a recent survey showed nine in ten believed they sacrificed their career prospects in order to represent their colleagues. Although we don't see it like that, activists give their time and skills willingly because they want to make a difference. The lay reps who received the awards this morning probably did not think that they were doing anything exceptional. Earlier this year the then DTI said workplace reps are worth as much as £1.1 billion to the UK economy, and their impact on productivity is potentially worth £10 billion. 150,000 health and safety reps are responsible for reducing the number of days lost to absence by over 600,000 a year, and preventing at least 11,000 cases of work-related illness or injury.

Throughout our history, union reps have always made a massive difference. Just think about the struggle for equal pay. Most of the great cases in which advances were won - the Ford machinists, the school dinner ladies - owed much to the women's unions taking action in the courts. And the role of workplace reps, many of them women, was absolutely crucial. People like speech therapist Pam Enderby, Julie Hayward at Cammell Laird, and all the others who stood up and fought for justice. At a time when greedy lawyers seem to think they can do it better than we can, we shouldn't forget where the rights we now take for granted really came from. Union reps have always understood the concept of equal pay within the workplace. They know that the lives of women workers can be transformed through collective bargaining and timely litigation. And as we reflect on what our reps have achieved, we should continue to argue for full funding for equal pay and for statutory equality reps to act as agents of change in the workplace.

I want to finish by looking to the future. Union reps have come a long way since the days of the ubiquitous shop steward in 1970s. Today we have organising reps, health and safety reps, equality reps, environment reps and of course union learning reps: all supporting workers in crucial ways. And the latter are showing that trade unions are not just about getting even, but about getting on. Showing we are attuned both to the aspirations of today's working people and the challenges of globalisation. Indeed our learning reps are redefining trade unionism. Most are new to union activism; half are women; and many are young. They are ordinary working people doing extraordinary things: helping their colleagues get on at work and in life; unlocking learning opportunities across the spectrum, from literacy and numeracy through to higher degrees.

Earlier this year I chaired the unionlearn conference - an inspirational event. I listened to pople telling me that union learning was the best thing that they had ever done. Our workplace activists are the key to our movement. They have shaped our past; and they, perhaps more than anyone else, will shape our future. They will ensure unions remain relevant because the issues that we take up are the ones that members want. Because the challenge we face is not just to ensure workers become union members; but to encourage union members to become union activists.

Conclusion

I am looking forward to the rest of the week, to listen to your contributions and as a Congress speaking as the trade union voice in our country. We are the workforce in the UK, we are citizens, we have skills and experience, we have something important to say. I could not finish without thanking all the staff at the TUC for the all the help they have given me this year, and for the friendly professionalism and high quality organisation which has enabled me carry out the duties of President of the TUC.