A former call centre worker from Merseyside is set to be confirmed as the new chief of the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
Paul Nowak, from Birkenhead, will lead the organisation, which represents the majority of unions in the UK. He has spoken of how he himself saw the benefit of union action while working close to home in Wirral.
Years ago Paul was an agency worker at a call centre he was called in to speak to his managers. Paul, 22 at the time, was a young trade union rep for the Communications Workers Union (CWU) and had been organising to improve pay and conditions.
There had been a spike in workers at the call centre joining the union, with 80 new people joining. What happened next would change the whole direction of his life, reports the Mirror.
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He said: "They told us we were all finished. Just like that, 80 people, many with families.
“They didn’t like how many new members had joined our union. It was union-busting, just like we saw recently at P&O.”
He added: "You can react to that in two ways. By never again putting your head above the parapet. Or by fighting to make sure that never happens to anyone else ever again.”
In just a few days’ time, Paul – who as well as being a former call centre operator was also a hotel night porter and a supermarket worker - will be confirmed as the next General Secretary of the TUC the most powerful union position in the country.
Born in Birkenhead on the Wirral peninsula, the guitar and ukulele-playing Everton fan will take over on January 1 from Frances O’Grady, to whom he has been deputy since 2016.
He said: “Well, it’s a privilege isn’t it? To be representing 5.5 million working people in 48 different trade unions. You can’t imagine anything that’s more of a privilege.”
Brian Kenny, who has been on the CWU executive for half a century, remembers the call centre dispute well – and how Nowak stood out as a young activist.
Cllr Kenny, who represents Bidston and St James in Wirral for Labour, said: “Paul was a breath of fresh air. So positive and passionate.
“So many new people got involved because of Paul. He organised the branch so well one day he and his fellow agency workers came into work to be told they were finished.
“I knew then he’d be involved in trade unionism all his life, not because he wanted a career, but because he believed in unions, and instilled it in everybody else. Paul hasn’t changed a bit.”
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