Meet the TUC President - Liz Snape

BECAUSE EQUALITY MATTERS

Aside from her passion for fairness, the Congress president is a fan of singing, netball, and harbours just a touch of affection for Arsenal. 
By Sophie Goodchild.

The year was 1989, and Liz Snape had just arrived in London by train to find a job. Her dilemma though, as she walked off the platform with her holdall, was whether to turn right or left out of Euston station in search of work. 

“It was one of those Sliding Doors moments that decides your destiny,” recalls Liz, now assistant general secretary of UNISON, which has 1.3 million  embers working in the public and private sector. “I had to choose who to try first from the list of unions I’d brought with me.” In the end, she headed left to the headquarters of the National and Local Government Officers Association (NALGO). They offered her a job immediately so she went straight back home to Merseyside, packed a suitcase this time and returned to begin work as a temporary clerical assistant. NALGO eventually merged with two other unions to form UNISON in 1993. Says Liz: “I’d planned to  come down just for a year – and I’m still here 27 years later!”

Her career in the trade union movement was partly inspired by her upbringing in Liverpool. The eldest of three, Liz was raised in a ‘Labour family’ with
a strong belief in community, treating people properly and a sense of fairness. Her mother Sheila worked as a secretary. Her father Gerry, a union member, started as a toolmaker at Vauxhall then retrained as a teacher. “We were very ordinary but close-knit, and what we had we shared. It was about looking out for others, whether that was checking on older neighbours or giving people lifts. We didn’t sit round the dinner table talking politics – my dad worked really long hours and did nights – but our values were strong.” As a teenager in 1978 Liz joined the Labour Party at an exciting time politically, with Liverpool benefiting from plans for housebuilding and education after years of the city being “ignored by central government,” according to Liz. Like many young student activists, Liz also found an outlet for her views as resident of the students’ union at Liverpool Polytechnic where she was studying Spanish and Russian. “It was a really vibrant student union, politically active – they were good times.” There was never “a life plan as such” sketched out in Liz’s head. But she knew she wanted to work for a union. “I wouldn’t say being from Liverpool made me a trade unionist,” says Liz, who has two daughters Emma (26) and Lauren (20). “I feel passionately though that Liverpool got such a raw deal – it was never given a real chance. It’s always been a Brilliant city and now we see what investment and a brave council can do. I’m proud of being from there.” 

The fact she started at the bottom and worked in a dozen different roles at UNISON gives Liz a perfect insight into how the union operates. It means that when people say to her “You know nothing about what I do”, she can reply, “Well, I do actually.” More than two thirds of UNISON’s members, including nurses, teaching assistants and homecare workers, are women, which Liz says gives the union “a distinct edge.”

“We’re a very creative and focused organisation, and it’s really telling that we have a million women members – it gives us a totally different ethos and perspective.” The TUC nominated Liz to sit on the Women at Work commission, an independent review set up in 2004 to address the shortage of women in the workplace. It was to make a lasting impression on her, especially seeing first-hand the hardships of women working in certain parts of the economy, such as in factories and care work. Her remit also included visiting schools to investigate the lot of young women in education. “There was this school in Camden with a lot of girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. Who’s going to be offering them internships? These are young women whose parents are telling them ‘Get a job, any job – we need money.’ You have to start with the basics, like the cost of a bus fare.” The fact a “gaping hole still exists between the haves and have nots” means unions are still vital institutions, she believes. The fact that jobs for life no longer exist and that the world of work is changing, with more people working in isolation instead of as part of a team, means workers need “something bigger” to protect them when things do not go their way, to redress the balance of power in the workplace.

However, it is vital unions prove their relevance to those they represent, according to Liz. UNISON, she says, is modern and progressive as well as an organisation that upholds traditional values like solidarity.  This meshing together of the old and new ways is what keeps unions energised. In addition, they must offer a good service and talk to people on their terms. “Gone are the days when people just paid into the union – we have to fight for them, work a lot harder for them, by looking through the prism of each and every member. Some issues are perennial – people struggling, being treated badly. But there are also new issues, ones we must respond to and that’s how we remain relevant.” 

“Gone are the days when people just paid into the union – we have to fight for them, work a lot harder for them, by looking through the prism of each and every member. Some issues are perennial – people struggling, being treated badly. But there are also new issues, ones we must respond to and that’s how we remain relevant.”

At the start of this year, it appeared that the very future of trade unions was in question. The controversial Trade Union Bill threatened the basic right to strike and there were those who forecast it was the end for the movement. However, the committed lobbying of the TUC resulted in a government U-turn on the bill’s more restrictive proposals, a result that Liz regards as one of the highlights of a busy year as TUC president.

Optimistic by nature, Liz says that quitting in the fight against a “pure Tory” government was never an option, even when the chance of success seemed narrow. The TUC was instrumental, according to Liz, through its meticulous preparation, its briefings and its bulletins. Says Liz: “It’s still a dreadful Act but we showed we could unite together and believe in ourselves. It was the TUC at its best and it was good to be part of it.” Another highlight for Liz has been speaking at TUC equality conferences. These bring a “vibrancy to a traditional trade union movement” through the agendas of different people who are at the same time committed to the movement’s core values of working together. Despite her busy schedule, she still finds time for a social life. Her ability to bring people together – “I’m a joiner or perhaps someone who doesn’t like to miss out on what life has to offer”– has resulted in the setting up of UNISON etball team, and a choir that performed at UNISON’s national delegate conference this year. Family is also hugely important as well as a love of football (Liz is an Arsenal fan thanks to her daughter Emma, although Everton is her second team).

More than a quarter of a century on from getting off that train at Euston and turning left, Liz still has the same enthusiasm for her work. “Every day I wake up and think ‘I love my job’ – it’s just incredible to work for the people we work for.” And she has no plans to quit anytime soon.

Sophie Goodchild is an awardwinning freelance journalist