Meet the TUC President 2021-22, Sue Ferns
Sue Ferns end her year as TUC president more convinced than ever of the crucial importance of trade unions, as millions of workers face the growing cost-of-living crisis.
Her term in office is coming to a close amid horrifying projections on energy prices, soaring inflation and growing industrial action by workers ranging from railway staff and bus drivers to barristers.
Sue, who is the senior deputy general secretary at professionals union Prospect, describes it as a political crisis, with the government demonising unions trying to win decent pay rises and defend hard won terms and conditions.
The civil service has been brutally targeted, with announcements of plans to cut 91,000 jobs and regular statements, such as from Jacob Rees-Mogg, urging civil servants to return to offices despite the widespread norm of working from home for all or part of the week.
Sue grew up in Sheffield and was the first member of her family to go to university, studying Industrial Relations at Salford University. She graduated in 1982 and started working for the TUC’s economics department where she stayed for a decade. After a maternity break, she joined Prospect (formerly IPMS) in 1993 as a research officer, becoming head of research in 2002.
In 2013 she became director of communications and research and was promoted to senior deputy general secretary in 2018. Sue has seen first-hand the contrast between the work of unions in defending and promoting pay, jobs and conditions, and a government big on promises not followed through.
We have a government that says a lot of things, but is short on delivery. I was part of a Green Jobs Task Force that produced a good report with recommendations on how to achieve a just transition – making sure the shift to net-zero economy is fair to workers and households – and the need to support workers during the transition. But the government has only done a few things, around the edges, rather than take decisions so badly needed.
She is the general council’s lead on energy, environment and sustainability, and attended the COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow with high hopes of progress being made. Instead she left with a feeling of failure.
”It seemed that the main discussions were going on somewhere else – it just felt like a nebulous event.” Sue said there was a good international trade union delegation, which wanted to help achieve success, but the outcome was hugely disappointing.
Sue has met a few ministers during the past year – but not Boris Johnson when he was PM. She contrasts the government’s treatment of unions at the start of the Covid lockdown with today. Then they wanted help in dealing with the crisis, now the current view among many ministers is that unions are the enemy within.
In recent weeks the TUC has responded angrily to the new law allowing firms to employ agency workers during strikes, and threats of a further crackdown on industrial action ballots, despite, or because of, votes for strikes in the rail, mail and other disputes in recent weeks being above 90%.
We are moving into a dangerous position in which it will be difficult to take industrial action.
Sue agrees with coordinating strikes such as those on the railways and possibly in education in the autumn, and believes one of the big challenges for unions is recruiting workers in private firms. ”We cannot afford to be only a public sector movement, although it is heartening that many unions increased membership during the pandemic.”
As a Prospect official, Sue has seen the demands on civil servants dealing first with Brexit, then the pandemic, and now struggling to recruit skilled staff. ”Who values civil servants? Their work includes food safety, security, traffic networks and border controls, but Rees-Mogg was so heavy handed in the way he treated them, it’s no wonder they don’t feel valued. ”He undermined the public service ethos of those who work in the civil service, which is really dangerous.”
After being elected president last year, Sue said her focus would be on getting the best deal for members, particularly for women, in the post Covid-19 world, and on closing the gender pay and pensions gap. She feels she has achieved progress on tackling sexual harassment issues – including in the union movement – having chaired a working group she believes was well supported by a number of general secretaries. ”I saw a real commitment from a range of unions to have policies and put them into practice. Lots of employers talk about having policies in place, but many needed refreshing and strengthening.”
But Sue admits there hasn’t been progress on tackling the gender pay and pensions gap, although she believes she has helped to raise awareness. Yet again, government action would help, such as requiring companies to report every year on pension gaps within their workforce, Sue believes.
Sue joined a growing band of women in senior positions in trade unions, following the election of Christina McAnea as general secretary of UNISON, Sharon Graham at Unite and of course Frances O’Grady at the helm of the TUC.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the increase in the number of women in trade unions, and Sue hopes it has made a difference in the workplace, highlighting issues such as mental health, stress and the menopause. In her spare time,
Sue is a season ticket holder at Sheffield United and enjoys running and reading fiction. Sue admits her work as president has taken her out of her comfort zone, but as a former employee of the TUC she knows and supports the efforts of the organisation.
One of the highlights of the year for Sue was attending a meeting in Workington ahead of the TUC’s We Demand Better rally in June. It was only attended by a few dozen local union members, but they wanted to show their support for what the TUC was doing even though many couldn’t travel to London for the rally. Local meetings like this are not usually standing room only, but things will be different for the TUC Congress in Brighton, the first in-person gathering for the organisation since before the pandemic.
People really do want to come together and draw on the energy you get from being with fellow trade unionists,
There’s a high prospect that she will oversee a successful conference.