Frances O'Grady speech to the Vatican's International Meeting of Trade Unions

I want to thank Pope Francis. For his commitment to tackling greed, inequality and poverty. For his moral leadership on peace and climate change. And, for his friendship with working people and trade unions.

I feel duty bound to start with a confession. I am no longer a practising catholic. But I owe a good deal of my education to catholic social teaching:

• That the rights of labour have primacy over those of capital;
• That we must strive to live our values of compassion and justice;
• And that it is our catholic duty to join a trade union.

The Catholic Church and the trade union movement share history too.

In Britain, the first great wave of new unionism began at the end of the 19th century. In the East End of London, it was sparked by the match women’s strike and later the Great Dock Strike of 1889.

The dockers demanded a pay rise, minimum hours and the right to a union voice.

Famously, Cardinal Manning gave both moral and practical support to those workers fighting for justice.

The Cardinal did not pull his punches. He said that the employers’ refusal to negotiate with the dockers’ union was not a private matter but a ‘public evil’.

This year I have met with young fast food workers. They are employed, on low pay and zero hours contracts, by one of the richest multinationals in the world - McDonalds.

The demands of the McDonalds strikers today are exactly the same as those of the dockers nearly 130 years ago: a fair wage, guaranteed hours and recognition of their trade union.

When their employer refused to listen or compromise they bravely voted to take strike action.

And I am sure that those young McStrikers would welcome support from a modern-day Cardinal Manning to help win a fair resolution of their dispute.

I would like to share with you some thoughts about union strategies to tackle inequality and to rebuild solidarity, locally and globally. And to explain why this work is so urgent.

I see three big challenges.

First, inequality, conflict and climate change threaten prosperity, peace and the planet.

As a consequence, around the globe, millions of men, women and children are on the move. Sometimes seeking sanctuary from danger. Sometimes simply searching for a better life - a job that pays enough to raise a family.

Fear and hostility towards newcomers is nothing new. Nor is the attempt by bad businesses to use migrants to undercut wages; or far right politicians to scapegoat them for all society’s ills.

Like catholics, trade unionists are internationalists. We reject attempts to divide and rule. We believe that every worker should be respected as a human being, not treated as mere human resources.

And we welcome all workers to our ranks and campaign for the right to remain. A refugee once told me why his union card meant so much to him: because it was the only personal documentation he owned.

The second big challenge we face is the fourth industrial revolution which is accelerating the global concentration and flow of capital, at the expense of labour.

The share of total wealth created going into pay packets has fallen significantly since the 1980s. As the Panama and Paradise papers have exposed -  many rich corporations are not paying their fair share of taxes. And our schools, hospitals and welfare services pay the price.

According to recent PwC analysis, the top 100 global companies by market capitalisation are now dominated by transnational tech companies, mainly US owned, such as Apple, Facebook and Alphabet (formerly known as Google).

These new global titans of tech have wealth and power beyond our imagination. Including the power to degrade working lives.

New technology is giving rise to some very old fashioned forms of exploitation. Some employers have washed their hands of any notion of an employment relationship with labour, deeming their workers to be ‘self-employed’, ‘contractors’ or merely ‘gig’.

Business owners are ever more remote from the labour that creates their wealth. More workers are becoming slaves to an App. And Surveillance at work is commonplace.

It’s very difficult for an Amazon warehouse worker to find dignity when: their movements are tracked electronically every minute of the day; CCTV cameras film everywhere they go; and, at the end of a shift, they face joining a queue for a body search before they are allowed to go home. 

The third major challenge from a U.K union perspective is Brexit.

The referendum on membership of the European Union exposed deep divisions of age, class - and especially regions and communities.

When the coal mines closed and big manufacturing companies shipped out, they were often replaced by low-paid insecure work.

Abandoned and humiliated, when it came to casting their vote in the EU referendum, many blue collar workers felt they had nothing to lose.

But unless the U.K. and European Union urgently find a deal that puts protecting jobs and workers’ rights first, for example by keeping us in the single market and customs union, working lives could get even worse.

So how can we meet these challenges? Firstly, we need to challenge the very values on which our economies run.

Together, we must remind politicians and business leaders of those precious principles: of dignity at work, the value of vocational training, the primacy of the rights of labour over those of capital.

We must be clear that the market should be our servant, not our master.

There is such a thing as society. Not all value can be measured in monetary terms. And individual greed must not triumph over the common good.

We also have to question whether global institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF and the Troika are fit for purpose.

As we saw after the global financial crash, too often they seem hypnotised by neoliberal thinking and forget their first responsibility - which should be to bail out the people.

Little wonder that, from Westminster to the Whitehouse and beyond, our democracies feel fragile.

Political democracies can only thrive on the foundation of economic justice.

So we need a fundamental change of direction.

Trade unions are making the case for:

• industrial policies with investment and good skilled jobs at their heart;
• decent public services and public ownership;
• and a new economic citizenship that gives workers’ unions a voice at every level, up to and including the boardroom.

The European Union could give a lead to the rest of the world. The new social pillar discussed in Gothenburg is a start but the political class must be much bolder.

The fourth industrial revolution is a case in point. Whether it’s Artificial Intelligence, machine learning or robots, new technology could be a force for social good, helping to tackle climate change, build better homes and improve health care.

The extra wealth generated could be shared more fairly with society so that older workers can retire in dignity.

And technology could be used to free people from mind-numbing, menial jobs by investing in up-skilling and retraining for more meaningful, socially useful work.

Secondly, we are campaigning for a New Deal for working people.

As Pope Francis recently argued, we urgently need to form a new human social pact and a new social pact for labour.

Workers of the world want dignity - and the pay rise they deserve.

And if it is the duty of catholic workers to join unions, then surely it follows that it is the duty of catholic employers to recognise unions?

We believe that everyone should have the right not just to any old job but to a great job.

By a great job we mean one that is skilled and secure. A job that pays not just a minimum wage, or even a Living Wage, but a fair wage.

We want work that is safe and healthy. That gives you a chance to learn and progress. Free from harassment and discrimination.

And, critically, having a great job means having the right to a voice at work through an independent trade union.

Because union rights are human rights.

We have launched a charter for great jobs to help win hearts and minds and help win practical policy change. We hope the Church will give us your blessing.

And finally unions recognise that if we are to change the world of work for good then we must change too. 

Next year the TUC will be celebrating our 150th anniversary. We believe that the best way to honour our past - those union pioneers, the match women and dockers - is to shape our future and organise the new generation of exploited workers.

We’ve asked union leaders to go back to the grassroots and find out what life on poverty pay or a zero hours contract really feels like.

Thousands of young people have shared their video diaries with us so we better understand their everyday hopes and fears. And together, through WhatsApp groups and in community halls, we are testing out prototypes for twenty-first century trade unionism.

Many of those young people we are working with are mums and dads too. They tell us that they want to be good parents. But it’s hard when they don’t know how many hours they will work, or how much they will earn, from one week to the next.

Today in Britain, the majority of children living in poverty have at least one parent in work.

For their sake, and for generations to come, we must offer hope that there is a better way.

The Catholic Church and trade unions share a belief in the importance of social solidarity. That together we can achieve much more than we can ever achieve alone.

And as we mark our 150th anniversary next June, I hope the Catholic Church will:

• Call on its own congregation to join a union and help us to grow ours.
• Speak out and support workers who find the courage to stand up against injustice.
• And encourage employers to do the right thing, morally and ethically, by recognising trade unions.

We share so many values that bind us together as workers, citizens and human beings.

Association. Dignity. Solidarity.

Together, we can make working lives better.

Prioritise dignity for labour ahead of freedom for capital.

And build a popular alliance for economic justice, at home and around the world.