TUC General Secretary speech to Congress 2023
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Thirty four years ago,
I started work at ASDA just over the water in Bromborough
And I joined the union when someone handed me a form on my first day at work
Five years later, as an activist in a call centre,
I was sacked by an agency
Because I’d helped organise a union
And a few years after that, the wonderful
Frances O’Grady
Who’s here today
Frances took a chance and gave this gobby activist from Merseyside
A place on the TUC organising academy
And not once during all my time as a union activist
Did I ever think I would be stood here
in Liverpool
As General Secretary of the TUC
But here I am –
and I can’t imagine feeling prouder or more humbled than I do right now
Congress, thank you for your support and welcome to Liverpool!
When you come out of the centre later - look across the Mersey
You can literally see the hospital where I was born
Liverpool is where I went to college
Went to work
Met my wife, Vicky
And raised our family
But like so many in this city, my roots stretch out across the world
My grandads
- Chin Tsang - Jimmy
- and Jozef Nowak -
came here in the second world war
Played their part in the fight against fascism
Married strong Liverpool Irish women
And stayed
Jimmy came from Hong Kong,
A cook in the merchant navy.
When the war was over, Britain rounded up and deported hundreds of Chinese sailors from this city
Somehow he managed to stay
Married Betty
And they brought up my mum, and her ten sisters and brothers
In Liverpool’s Chinatown
My grandad Joe was an engineer in the Polish RAF
He married Peggy
And they had my dad, and his five brothers and sisters
Joe spent most of his life working in English Electric on the East Lancs Road
A hard worker
A wonderful dad and grandad
And a man who woke up with night terrors because of what he’d seen during the war
I am proud to be the grandson of immigrants
Proud of my family
And proud of the contribution that they
and millions like them
Have made to this country
So when I hear the Home Secretary talking of a “migrant invasion”
That her dream is to deport people to Rwanda
When I see immigrants housed on a barge with legionella
Or hear that the Immigration Minister ordered a mural for kids painted over
For me - it is personal
Because the real enemies of the working class
Don’t arrive in a small boat
They fly in by private jet
Our movement stands with all working people
Wherever they were born
Whatever their race
Whatever their nationality
Every migrant is my sister, my brother
And this government
shames us all
Because our country should never turn its back
On those fleeing persecution, poverty or war
I am proud of this city
Proud of the way it has picked itself up
Proud of those who’ve helped regenerate it
But look beyond the gleaming dockside
The museums,
the tourists, the students, the football, the music,
the nightlife
In this city, one in five adults is out of work
One in three local kids – trapped by poverty
Demand for foodbanks doubles every year
And a quarter of a million people are sat on NHS waiting lists
Here in Liverpool alone
And it’s not just Liverpool
It's everywhere
Nothing works in this country anymore
And no-one in government cares
The Conservatives have broken Britain.
They’ve had 13 years to sort out crumbling concrete in our schools
But five days before the new term, they tell schools they can’t open
Because – and I quote the education secretary – everyone sat on their arses
Could you think of a more perfect metaphor for this government?
A crisis of their making
Someone else gets the blame
Useless
Incompetent
Past their sell by date
Yet, this government
that can't keep our rivers clean
Or run trains on time
Or run a functioning NHS
Can find time to attack the right to strike
Congress
The right to strike is fundamental
Without the right to withdraw our labour
workers become
Disposable
Replaceable
Exploitable
This new law isn’t about preserving services for the public
It’s about telling us to get back in our place
Don’t demand better
Sit down
– shut up
Well that’s not going to happen
Not on our watch
We fought their attack
on the right to strike
in Parliament
We’ll fight it at the ILO
and in the courts
And, when the first worker is sacked
For refusing to work on a strike day
We’ll fight it in workplaces
And on the picket lines
And Congress, this movement will fight it every single day until it is repealed!
Now, my dad, John, spent most of his working life as a welder
He worked at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead across the river
But if you know that industry, you know this
Sometimes there was work
Sometimes there wasn’t
And sometimes the only work going was on the other side of the world
But he and my mum, Anne, knew that they were building the chance of a better life
For me and my brother John
When we were born
– in the seventies –
There may not have been a lot of money around
But we took the basics for granted
No food banks in every town
No legions of people sleeping on our streets
Jobs,
good union jobs,
paid good union wages
Families expected that life would be better for their kids than it was for them
That’s all we ask for now
Wages that go up
Waiting lists that come down
Kids that aren’t hungry
Working people treated with respect
Able to go on holiday every summer
To take the kids out
To treat them at Christmas
It shouldn’t be too much to ask for
But it’s a long way from where we are
And I know
who's to blame
This cabinet of millionaires
Disconnected
Dysfunctional
Disgraceful
I’ve been general secretary for nine months
Travelling up and down the country
Talking to reps and activists
Reps like Daz who showed me round Airbus
Where there are four thousand union members in a world class employer
Ahmed, Colin and Jimmy
– reps at B&M –
Where both the company and the union are growing fast
Joanne, a rep at a mental health hospital in Blackpool, standing up for outsourced cleaners
And three messages came back to me from each and every conversation with reps and members
One - we’ve got to build stronger unions
Two – working people are hurting – but the wealthy have never had it so good
And three – it’s time for change in Westminster
Let me start with our own movement
Because this is the stuff we can do ourselves
Not waiting for an election
Not waiting for legislation
What we can do right here, right now
Those Tory ministers who say that strikes don’t work?
Tell that to the Jacob’s workers who won six and a half per cent
To the Kingsmill bakers who won nine per cent
And to the Liverpool dockers who won an incredible eighteen per cent pay rise
And tell that to the public sector workers across the UK
In health,
in education,
in the civil service
Voting for action
Taking action
Winning better deals for members
By any measure it’s been a massive year for unions
But despite the wins
Despite the media coverage
Despite the new activists
our membership is not growing
So many young workers support our campaigns,
but they don’t join our unions.
All too often there isn't a union in their workplace
No rep comes over on day one - like they did to me -
And gets them to sign up
Congress
Nothing is more important than building a stronger trade union movement
Because it’s a stronger movement that can deliver the change workers need
It matters every day, in workplaces
And it matters in the face of the big challenges too
Without strong unions, the shift to net zero will see good jobs destroyed
Communities ruined
Without strong unions,
Artificial Intelligence and new technology will deliver a digital dividend for the tech giants
not workers
And without strong unions,
Workers will never have the power to enforce their rights at work
Look - my job is to lead the TUC
I can’t recruit members to unions – only you can do that
But here’s what I can do
Reps are the beating heart of our movement.
But our reps need to reflect today's working class.
So starting today, the TUC will train at least 500 new Black activists each and every year
Employers coordinate
– so we must coordinate
And so this year,
We'll ask our unions to come together and organise across whole industries
And I’m proud
Following the scandal at P&O
that our first joint union campaign
Will be organising seafarers
With Nautilus and the RMT
No more P&Os!
And we will expand the
"Our Work Matters" campaign
to seek union recognition
For every outsourced facilities worker
At Serco, Sodexo, ISS, Mitie and more
No matter the contract
No matter the workplace
No matter the employer
Every outsourced worker needs a union!
We will turn our Solidarity Hub
which has helped unions win so many strike campaigns –
Into a Growth Hub
To turn union wins into union membership
So
if you beeped your horn as you passed a picket line
If you signed a petition or shared it on social media
If you thought
“You know what, good for them, standing up for themselves”
There is a union for every job
There is a union for every industry
There is a union for you
Join a union today
Because when you join us
Together we will win.
More workplaces - recognised
More wage rises - bargained for
And, deal by deal, workplace by workplace,
Built by unions and working people
A more equal society
The past 13 years have been tough
But not everybody has suffered
Last year Britain’s top bosses saw their pay rocket by half a million pounds each
Porsche reported record sales in the UK
And a single bottle of Scotch sold for three hundred thousand pounds
I say again
The real enemies of the working class don’t arrive in a small boat
They fly in by private jet
They bank record profits
And then they have the gall to tell workers not to ask for a pay rise
It’s not right
It’s not fair,
and it’s not sustainable
We need an economy that rewards work – not wealth
This much inequality is bad for our economy
Fairness and growth go hand in hand
And that’s why those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest load
And here’s a few things
That any Prime Minister
- even this Prime Minister - Could do today
Let’s start by closing every single loophole – like those for non-doms
Levying VAT on the fees for private schools
And beefing up revenue and customs so we can clamp down on the tax cheats
And why stop there?
We could have proper windfall tax on the energy companies
That would raise two billion pounds extra this year
We could ask the richest 140 thousand people
to pay just little bit more
And raise another ten billion this year
We could tax capital gains at the same rate as wages
And raise twelve billion pounds this year and every year
Congress, It’s time for fair taxes
Time for a fairer Britain
But that fairer Britain won’t be delivered by this government
So if like me
You’re tired of this country where nothing works
Tired of a government of the rich for the rich
Tired of rampant inequality
Vote them out
Last year Keir Starmer addressed this Congress
I heard him
You heard him
He didn’t just make us a promise
He set out a plan
A new deal for workers
The biggest expansion of workers’ rights in a generation
- No more zero hours contracts
- No more fire and rehire
- Employment rights from day one,
- Union rights to access the workplace
- New fair pay agreements
- Repealing that attack on the right to strike
That will be the choice at the next election
We want that first one hundred days Employment Bill
Through in one piece.
Onto the statute books
And into the workplaces
And that’s why
When the time comes
I will tell anyone who asks
- Vote for working people
- Vote for change
- Vote for the party WE named for OUR movement
Vote Labour
Look, I’ve talked enough
You’ve heard me set out a challenge to unions
To get this movement growing again
A challenge to our politicians
To ask more of those who already have the most
And a challenge to both wings of our movement
to kick this rotten government out of office
Let’s go united into that next election
Let’s deliver that new deal
Let’s win for working people
Solidarity, Congress