Jobs, security, dignity – your invitation to join us at TUC Congress 2020

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At the start of my year as TUC president, I knew it would be eventful, with Brexit and a general election on the horizon. But I couldn’t have anticipated the maelstrom of coronavirus. I think by the end of my year, I will have chaired more (virtual!) meetings of the executive and general council than any TUC president before me.

As the coronavirus took hold, trade unions were never more needed, fighting for adequate personal protective equipment, safe workplaces and decent financial support for families in lockdown. I am proud of what we achieved – not least winning furlough and self-employed support schemes that were far more generous than they would otherwise have been.

Now, as we face the prospect of unemployment on a scale not seen for a generation, it’s time for unions to take stock and prepare for the huge campaigns to come.

I am from Liverpool. You don’t need to tell me about the misery of mass unemployment. I had hoped that today’s younger workers would never live through what we did in the Eighties. I have seen what happens when a Tory government walks away from whole communities and whole industries. I will fight to the last breath to stop that happening to workers in the UK again.

That’s why I want you to join me and thousands of trade union members at this year’s TUC Congress. It’s open to all and free to attend. It’s where we set the course for the movement over the year to come.

We won’t be in a conference centre by the seaside. We’ll be live online in your workplaces and homes, on Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th September.

The mornings will be the big debates. We’ll hear from frontline workers and union leaders from across the movement, and we’ll have keynote speeches from the leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer, and the TUC’s general secretary, Frances O’Grady.

Both mornings, we’ll discuss the huge impact of coronavirus on working lives. We’ll call for better safety at work, and oppose the inequalities the pandemic has laid bare. We’ll demand action to stop mass unemployment, protect decent jobs and ensure working people don’t bear the burden of the pandemic. We’ll speak out about the need for a global recovery in solidarity with struggles for justice around the world. And together, we will thank our key workers, demanding the pay rise that they have earned.

In a standalone debate, we will stand with our sisters and brothers in the USA and around the globe as they speak out against the racist murders of Black men and women. The Black Lives Matters protests have renewed a worldwide call for justice for Black people – and have highlighted once again the institutional racism and economic inequality that endures here in the UK. The trade union movement will recommit itself to antiracism, and demand justice for Black workers.

In the afternoons, we will have a full fringe programme of debates, discussions and seminars, run by organisations from across the labour movement. I am proud that Congress is going ahead – and that for the first time it is open to every trade union member.

Congress is our moment to demand change for working people. Join us. Sign up to attend now at tuc.org.uk/CongressSignUp.