PAUL NOWAK, the new TUC General Secretary, spoke to The Voice about his approach to anti-racism.

A lifelong trade unionist, Birkenhead-born Nowak has served as the Deputy General Secretary and led an internal listening exercise to hear from Black, Asian and other racialised minority staff at the TUC.

Q: Tell us about the work the TUC has been doing on anti-racism and the response from affiliate unions?

Paul Nowak: “You’re absolutely right, anti-racism is part of our DNA, and it is a long-standing commitment. It’s right for us to challenge ourselves to make sure we’re living up to that commitment. We’ve all been on the marches, passed resolutions and had written policies, but are we living up to our own and the public’s aspirations? Are we making sure that we’re doing everything we can to be genuinely anti racist in everything that we do? For the last two years our anti racism taskforce, chaired by Patrick Roach, was an important initiative in light of the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. But also reflecting the experiences of Black workers during the pandemic. The pandemic didn’t cause inequalities in our workplaces, it absolutely shone a light on those inequalities in our workplaces, and in our society more generally.

“So this year, at the Congress, the Anti Racism Taskforce will be reporting. It’s been a challenging initiative and an ambitious one. I’m hopeful that we have a document that really sets out what more the government needs to do, what more employers need to do, and what more unions themselves need to do to be genuine anti racist organisations, and to, to meet the concerns and the issues that matter to our black members.”

Q: How much difference can trade unions make when you look at the scale of systemic racism at work?

Paul Nowak: “We’ve found that two in five Black workers have faced racism in work and the majority haven’t raised the issue because they have got confidence their employer is going to do anything about it. Twenty years on from our Stephen Lawrence Taskforce is that, yes, the movement’s made a lot of progress but we can’t be complacent. So I think there’s lots of things that we need to do and some of it we’ve set out in the Taskforce report. Part of it is about demonstrating to Black workers that we are fighting their corner, and that when they really raise issues, then we take them up.

“We take them up at the bargaining table, we hold employers to account, we prosecute those cases of racial discrimination. Another key element is about making sure we’ve got more Black reps and activists because people would have more confidence if they thought that the union movement looked and sounded like them, and people who’ve had the same experiences that they’ve had. We’ve still got a massive job to do in terms of making sure our representative base is genuinely representative.”

Q: Recruiting Black workers is also crucial for the long-term future of the movement.

Paul Nowak: “It’s absolutely vital, on different levels. We know 85% of the private sector workforce is unorganised, in sectors that have high proportions of black workers. So we’ve just got to be better organised in those sectors. If we’re going to build a movement that is as relevant to the next generation of workers as it has been to previous generations, then it’s got to be a genuinely representative movement, and one that organises right across the economy.”

Q: What will be the legacy of the Anti Racism Taskforce and how will progress be monitored?

Paul Nowak: “It will continue in spirit and in practice because we’re committed to is setting up an implementation group, which will monitor what we do after the Taskforce. We’ve got an anti racist manifesto that we’re asking unions to sign up to, which sets out a number of pledges based on the sort of key workstreams of the taskforce and that implementation group, which Patrick [Roach] will be closely involved; in Gloria Mills from the Race Relations Committee, they will be holding us to account.

“And we’ll be reporting back on a regular basis to the General Council and to Congress next year, as well. Quite often we talk about what are the big public policy changes that we need to see and that’s all important but frankly we can’t wait for a change of government. We have to do what we can do right now in workplaces. I think as a result of the work of the Taskforce unions are going to go back out into the workplace and make sure our bargaining agendas reflect the concerns of our black members. Are we thinking consciously about how our organising efforts can support black workers? Are we taking the race discrimination cases that we need to take to send a clear message to employers and to prospective members? It’s not about saying, “Oh, God, if only the government would do X or Y” I want the government to do X or Y, but there’s stuff we can do in the meantime.”

Q: What work has the TUC been doing on getting its own house in order?

Paul Nowak: “I’ve been heading up a project called building an inclusive TUC. We told ourselves the TUC is a great place to work but when we spoke to some of our Black staff, we fell short on those aspirations. So we’ve been working hard to first of all listen to our own Black staff about what their experience is and work to see what we can do to make it better. But consciously thinking about recruitment, progression, creating the right culture in the organisation. From the basics, like just how we treat colleagues, and how we recognise and reward the work that people do.”