At this year’s TUC Congress in Brighton, LFF spoke to Thomas about her perspective on the Labour government under Andy Burnham, the key campaigns her union is currently working on, and how the trade union movement can help resist the far-right.

“I think Andy Burnham is very engaging as prime minister”, Thomas told LFF, adding that he has been “very well received broadly from the public [and], I think, from trade unions.”.

This engagement, Thomas said, was a continuation of the relationship between Burnham and the trade union movement that existed prior to him becoming prime minister. She told LFF: ” There was lots of engagement running up before Andy was prime minister as well. So we had an opportunity to feed in what we think the government should be doing and how they can deliver for workers in particular.

“And since Andy has been prime minster, some of those conversations have continued – specifically with what that looks like and what we’re saying is to do with making sure that the Employment Rights Act is fully implemented, not watered down [and] actually is meaningful and people see that is something that really helps them in the world of work.”

She continued by saying that “we want an economy that works for workers”, and that this would mean that “people feel better off”, and that “work is paying and gives them a better deal in life”.

For Thomas and her members, changes to how workers’ contracts operate is crucial to this.

“One of the big items that will really help millions of workers is having a contract that reflects the hours that they actually work, because that ultimately does put more money in their pocket, but it also allows them to have that financial security, because it’s coupled with contractual security”, Thomas said.

She added: “At the minute, you know you’ve got people that might be on a low hour contract that regularly is flexed up, but that means they can’t do things like plan that month of what their actual net wage is going to be. Some of them might want to get a second job but they can’t because they need to be fully flexible for their primary employer. And these are the types of things that we hear about every day that doesn’t allow people to plan for the future.”

Thomas argued that this has bigger ramifications for people too. She told LFF: “You want to get a mortgage, you want to get a rental agreement – you have to evidence what contract you [have]. So these are things that might not necessarily be headline-grabbing. A lot of people talk about what the living wage is versus what is the real living wage, but I think we need to talk about these other items that really do help people.”

While Thomas has been supportive of Burnham’s premiership, that support isn’t unconditional. She wants to see him deliver significant changes in the economy in order to improve the lives of her members.

“We want to make sure that the government is looking at redistribution of wealth”, Thomas told LFF, going on to add that this would involve “making sure there’s fairer taxation systems” and that a “wealth tax should be looked at”.

She said that this was because “we speak to our members on a daily basis who tell us that quite often they don’t feel like having a job gives them access to a better life as it once did”, before suggesting that while “it’s important to keep the market stable”, the government should look at revising the fiscal rules.

Most pointedly, Thomas told LFF: “At the end of the day, Andy has come in on a banner of change. I think gone are the days of tweaking around the edges.”

Outside of the big asks on the economy, USDAW is also regularly campaigning for legislative change to benefit its members. Chief among these is the union’s campaign for the introduction of a specific offence for assault on retail home delivery drivers.

This follows USDAW’s previous campaign to get a standalone criminal offence for assaulting retail workers,. That campaign was successful, and since 2026 such an offence has been on the statute book.

Why is extending this to home delivery workers important? “Nobody should have to go to work feeling fearful, full of anxiety”, Thomas told LFF, adding: “Unfortunately we have many retail workers that suffer abuse and sometimes violence within the workplace.”

She went on to say that the campaign reflects how trends in shopping have changed, with more and more purchases being made online for home delivery, and that this means that the law needs extending to cover the people making those deliveries.

Thomas told LFF: “You still have flashpoints when delivery drivers are delivering things – like age verification if somebody bought a knife or things like that, so they will get that at the doorstep where they can get blamed for having to enforce the law.

“I’m glad that Labour’s going to deliver it being a specific offence for retail workers, but I think it’s part of a menu of things we need to do.”

Alongside campaigns that relate to the very specific issues that affect its members, like many trade unions USDAW is actively campaigning against the rise of the far-right.

Thomas sees this as an important priority for the labour movement. She told LFF: “What we need to do is combat the misinformation that the far-right spread, because I think they thrive on misinformation, division hatred – causing all this mayhem which literally turns into riots.”

Specifically, she argued that Reform UK flourishes under misinformation, and that the party is a threat to workers’ rights. She said: “One of the biggest pieces of misinformation that I think we hear is that Reform’s on the side of workers. And if you look at the stats and the actual facts, they had an opportunity to show that they were on the side of workers when the Employment Rights Act was going through parliament and they voted against it time and time again.”

She went on to add: “So if you were somebody that is wanting to see really big changes like I said before with the contractual hours, sick pay on day one, all of the extra paternity leave and things like that that matter to people, why would Reform keep voting against it?”

Later, Thomas warned that Reform would repeal the workers’ rights act and “repeal legislation that

Elsewhere, Thomas said that Reform would repeal the Employment Rights Act, “repeal legislation that keeps women and girls safe”, and if Reform were to enter government they wouldn’t “deliver for anybody outside of billionaires and millionaires and big business”, branding the party’s attempts to portray itself as ‘anti-establishment’ a “joke”.

Our interview ended with a stark warning. She told LFF: “The threat is serious though. We shouldn’t ignore it [and] I think we have a huge responsibility to do everything we can to stop them getting power.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

The post People “don’t feel like having a job gives them access to a better life” – interview with USDAW general secretary Joanne Thomas appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

At this year’s TUC Congress in Brighton, LFF spoke to Pohl about these issues and what she wants to see Andy Burnham’s government do to address them.

Pohl began by telling LFF that Burnham “gets a lot of the issues” in the music sector and that he “understands the issues with generative AI and EU touring”.

She then went on to explain what the big issues facing her members around AI are. “Well, the problem that we’ve got at the moment is that to start with it was AI developers training on mass catalogues of works, but without any permissions in place”, Pohl said, adding: “But now the problem is that we’ve got licensing deals actually happening. So, for example, major record labels like Warner will go and license the catalogue to an AI developer.”

She continued by setting out what this means for musicians themselves, telling LFF: “Most artists are going to have contracts that predated generative AI and so there’s nothing in contracts that says if work is licensed for training purposes, what the royalty rate should be.

“So, what happened with music streaming is they went for the lowest possible royalty rate in the contract. And we think it should be a 50/50 split with the artist. But there’s no transparency around these deals – and session musicians, the backing musicians, get absolutely nothing just like [with] music streaming.”

What should the government be doing to address this? Pohl told LFF that it’s a combination of new regulation, strengthening existing laws around copyright, and establishing new rights for musicians in relation to AI.

She said: “We want regulation from the government. We want copyright laws to be strengthened. And ideally we want our members to have new rights that relate to AI so that anyone like a record label or an AI developer would need to come and seek permission from the musician and actually pay them something if they wanted those rights.

Pohl continued: “So if it’s just left to the market like it is at the moment, then we’ll end up with all these licensing deals done behind closed doors and there’ll be no transparency around how artists are being paid if at all.”

How confident is the MU that Burnham will deliver on this? Pohl told LFF: “I think that the word on the street is that Andy is maybe a bit more friendly to the creative industries. I think there was a bit of a concern that Keir Starmer’s administration maybe were more pro [the] AI sector and what growth that could deliver to the economy.

“But of course, the creative industries also deliver growth, and I actually think it’s not a binary choice. It’s not a case of the government can back AI or back music. Potentially, there could be licensing deals that are done that are fair if the government actually supports us.”

Aside from AI, one of the most pressing issues the MU is seeking to address is the impact Brexit has had on the ability for musicians to tour within the EU, and the consequences this has had for their income.

New research has estimated that between 2022 and 2024, the UK touring sector lost £208 million and 2,490 jobs due to reduced touring activity across Europe. The research also suggested that reduced touring by UK musicians resulted in estimated losses of more than £1 billion to EU member state economies.

Pohl told LFF: “I think in the previous set of negotiations with the EU, really the EU touring issue [was] seen as being a UK problem – like it affects our members more than it affects the EU. But I think the importance of this research is that it shows there is an economic impact on both sides of the border, and that there’s an advantage to us allowing touring and facilitating touring.

“So we want to see issues addressed like the cost of Carnets, which are the equipment passports that our members have to get, which can be minimum £300 or £400, but they can be thousands of pounds.

“We also want to see some sort of solution to the 90 day issue, where we’ve got at the moment our members are restricted to working or 90 days in a 180 day period. So if you’re on a long running show that’s touring in Europe, you have to come back after 90 days. Robbie Williams actually had to send back his whole crew tot he UK and bring out an entire different crew, which is just complete madness.”

Pohl continued: “We’ve got at the moment different rules in different territories, where we just need to have ideally one EU wide visa waiver agreement which would mean it would facilitate our members touring between territories without having to get visas and work permits for each individual territory.”

As with other unions that represent workers in the creative and arts sectors – such as Equity – the MU has another big concern at present: the ongoing BBC charter renewal process. The current charter expires at the end of 2027, and the government is therefore in the process of renewing and reviewing it, which will steer the future of the broadcaster for the next decade.

“We also want to see a decent license fee settlement for the BBC charter renewal, we want to make sure that they’ve got stable, secure funding”, Pohl told LFF, adding: “We want it to be a universal BBC, we don’t support the idea of having a two -tier system for people who pay a subscription and get better content or better access. For me, that’s not a message that this government wants to send to people – that you have to pay to get increased access. It should be the BBC should be for everyone.”

She went on to say: “The BBC‘s already made some commitments around use of AI. We’d like to see them go further. We’d like to have a firm commitment that they won’t use AI generated music and other creative content. We want to make sure that they’re still paying good salaries. I know that at the moment because of the state of the BBC and the fact that less people are paying the license fee, we’re not getting RPI pay rises.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

The post Andy Burnham ‘gets it’ on challenges facing musicians – interview with Musicians’ Union general secretary Naomi Pohl appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

Mr Burnham’s ascent to Number 10 loomed large over the event – and gave the whole thing a much more optimistic tone than it has had in recent years. Speaking to delegates, there was a palpable sense that Burnham offered hope for the movement and a real opportunity to prevent a Reform government. 

Likewise, both the senior cabinet members who addressed the Congress were warmly received by delegates. Housing secretary Angela Rayner spoke at the event on Monday, in which she gave a stark warning of what a Reform government would mean for workers. On Tuesday, first secretary of state Louise Haigh spoke in place of the prime minister, who had cancelled all engagements following the death of his father. She used her speech to commit the government to “turn the page on four decades of lost opportunity, to deliver the change our country is crying out for, and to build a future that the people we represent expect and deserve.” Both speeches were met with a standing ovation from delegates. 

Beyond the applause though, what do the leaders of some of the big unions think of the early days of the Burnham government? 

Equity’s Paul W Fleming told LFF that it is ‘markedly more competent’ than Keir Starmer’s‘. Dave Ward from the CWU said Burnham is the ‘best chance for working people’. Unite’s Sharon Graham told LFF that his ‘analysis has been good’.

So far, so good. But the support from trade union general secretaries isn’t unconditional or without warnings.Graham said she wanted to see “meat on the bones” and that he needed to prove “the working class could feel that their better days are ahead of them”. ASLEF general secretary Dave Calfe told LFF that Burnham has to use the budget to “make life easier for working people”. And while Ward said he was the best chance for working people, he also said he was the ‘last chance’ to prevent Reform from coming to power and seeing Labour out office for a long time. 

The prospect of Reform coming to power, and the threat of the far-right, were threads that ran throughout much of this year’s Congress. The TUC general secretary Paul Nowak used his keynote speech at the event to lay into Nigel Farage’s party, saying: “Reform do not, never have, and never will represent the interests of working people”, and calling for a ban crypto donations. Delegates also agreed to set up a task-force to combat the far-right online. They also voted for a motion which saw the TUC commit to take steps to tackle the far-right’s “weaponisation of women’s and girls’ safety”.

On the topic of motions – what were the big debates at this year’s Congress? Ultimately, there was very little disagreement within the movement this year, with most motions passing unanimously. Compared to Congresses over recent years, this one was much more cordial. 

The main disagreement came on Wednesday morning, over a UCU motion on the ‘Wages Not Weapons’ campaign, which calls for investment in public services, rather than defence spending. The motion called for the TUC to “build on the Wages Not Weapons campaign by advancing a trade union vision of security based on decent work, quality public services, equality, climate action, democracy and peace”. Although it passed, it proved divisive, with Unite and GMB among those to speak against it.

Despite not causing disagreement in the hall, this year’s Congress did pass a number of other significant motions. Delegates voted to oppose the EHRC code of practice and support self-ID for trans people, to call a national demonstration this autumn calling for investment in public services, and to push the UK government to end all military cooperation with Israel.

With the storytelling done, here’s the full line-by-line rundown of everything that happened:

The interviews

• Sharon Graham: A just transition could be as transformational as the 1945 Labour government
• Andy Burnham must ‘make life easier for working people’ – interview with ASLEF general secretary Dave Calfe 
• Andy Burnham is ‘best chance for working people’ – CWU general secretary Dave Ward 
• Zack Polanski will be sixth Green MP after Holborn and St Pancras by-election, Rachel Millward claims
• Andy Burnham’s government ‘markedly more competent’ than Keir Starmer’s – Equity general secretary

The speeches

• Louise Haigh tells TUC Congress Labour government is ‘proudly on the side of working people’
• Angela Rayner gives stark warning of impact of Reform government on workers in TUC Congress speech
• TUC general secretary slams Tory and Reform ‘flat-earthers’ over climate policy
• Paul Nowak calls for ban on crypto donations in damning attack on Reform UK
• TUC general secretary celebrates ‘biggest increase’ in trade union membership ‘since records began’
• TUC president blasts ‘vindictive and pernicious’ legislation that blocks trade unionists’ ‘fundamental human rights’
• TUC president perfectly sums up why trade unionism matters

The motions

• TUC calls for end to all UK military cooperation with Israel in wide-ranging BDS policy
• TUC votes to build on ‘Wages Not Weapons’ campaign and advance an alternative vision for security
• TUC passes motion condemning ‘institutional racist targeting, harassment and humiliation’ of Professor Jason Arday 
• TUC backs motion calling for investment in climate resilience 
• TUC backs ASLEF campaign for publicly owned trains to end railway profiteering 
• TUC calls on Labour to make good on its promise to deliver ‘biggest wave of insourcing in a generation’ 
• TUC agrees to call national demonstration to demand investment in public services
• TUC votes to condemn EHRC code of practice and back self-ID for trans people
• TUC issues call for radical shift in British economic policy
• TUC agrees to launch social media taskforce to take on far-right online
• TUC commits to ‘defend’ teachers from ‘attacks’ by Reform-controlled councils

The rest

• Privatised water firms acting “like a criminal racket”, Apsana Begum MP claims
• Labour Party’s record on trans rights ‘absolutely disgraceful’, Nadia Whittome tells TUC fringe 
• Sharon Graham explains why workers not bosses are what keeps the country going in just 29 words
• Government must ‘face up to reality’ on climate crisis, Fire Brigades Union leader says
• Union leader destroys far-right’s claims to care about women’s safety

The stuff that’s still to come

We’re not quite done yet! We’ve still got two more interviews to get out from this week. Watch this space for our conversation with the Musicians’ Union’s Naomi Pohl and USDAW’s Joanne Thomas. 

TUC was the first conference in our calendar of coverage for this season (as Reform refused to let us in!) Next up, in just over a week’s time, we’ll be in Liverpool covering Labour Conference. We’re proud to have provided some of the most comprehensive coverage of TUC Congress of any media outlet in the UK. But this reporting doesn’t come cheap.

If you haven’t already done so, please consider chipping in and donating today to help fund our conference season coverage.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

The post What happened at TUC Congress? appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

Under her leadership, Unite has sought to assert its influence on the political scene in order to deliver policy change for its members, while maintaining a relentless focus on workplace organising over issues of pay, terms and conditions.

During her time in office, she’s butted heads with governments of various flavours. With Andy Burnham now in Number 10 and leading a new-ish administration, LFF spoke to Graham at this year’s TUC Congress about what she makes of his early days in government and what her union wants him to deliver for workers.

“At the moment the working class feel that their best days are behind them”, Graham told LFF, adding: “They don’t believe their children will have better jobs. They don’t believe their children are going to be able to buy a home. And actually they feel that everything that was there is almost in the past, not the present.”

She went on to say that Burnham needs to “crack the code” to ensure that “the working class could feel that their better days are ahead of them”. She said his “analysis has been good”, but that there needed to be “meat on the bones”.

What would this look like? Graham’s initial answer comes with a proposed contrast to the early days of the Keir Starmer government. Within months of coming to office, Starmer and his chancellor Rachel Reeves proposed major cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, a move vociferously opposed by many in the trade union movement.

Graham told LFF that Burnham needs to deliver a “Winter Fuel in reverse”, arguing that “he has to something positive and clear”, and that this should be “immediate”.

With the budget coming up in October, the government has an opportunity to deliver this. For Graham, there are some clear policies it could adopt that would improve the lives of workers and begin to rebalance the economy.

First up is tax thresholds, which Graham argues should be un-frozen. “It’s one of these hidden things that’s happening that most people don’t even realise”, Graham told LFF. She added that in: “2022, they were frozen by the Tories, continued on by Labour. But if that had not happened, the £12,500 band would be £16,000, and the 40% tax threshold at £50,000 would be £66,000. We’ve got low paid members and pensioners going in too early on the 20%, and you’ve also then got tanker drivers, nurses, teachers coming in at the 40% bracket when they shouldn’t be in at the 40% bracket at all.”

Graham continued: “So even though that’s something that in a way is really hidden, I think the signal it would give is: work pays.”

Alongside this, Graham has called for the government to use the budget to ‘ease’ the pressure on people around energy costs.

But Graham and Unite are looking for a more extensive set of economic changes than this. At this year’s TUC Congress, delegates backed a Unite motion which called for an “ambitious industrial strategy to deliver good well-paid jobs and reindustrialise Britain”, an end to public sector austerity through taxing wealth, and a loosening of the government’s ‘fiscal rules’ to allow more direct investment in jobs.

Graham told LFF that “since the 2008 crash and Covid, it’s been workers and communities that have paid the price for the entirety of it”, and called for the government to say that “workers and communities aren’t going to pay anymore”, arguing that they should instead be “going to the exceedingly rich” and the “banks who we bailed out” to fund the economy.

Alongside this, Graham said she wants to see a substantial “package of investment in British industry”, the “reindustrialisation” of the UK, and for the government to begin taking energy into public ownership. She told LFF: “In an average house bill of £1,700, £500 pound is profit. It’s a bit of a no-brainer. At some point we need to take this back into public hands.”

Graham acknowledged that “we might not get everything”, but argued that “if the package shows this is a Labour government fighting for the working class and making sure that everyday people are not paying the price – they’ve done that since 2008 – I think he [Burnham] will get a good hearing.”

On that economic package, how the government addresses the climate emergency and decarbonises the economy is a central interest for trade unions. How that transition is managed is a key area of debate within the trade union movement.

Unlike some within the movement and the wider left, Unite does not oppose the expansion of oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.

Graham told LFF that Unite’s support for continued drilling in the North Sea is in order to buy time to deliver a fair and just transition for workers into a net-zero economy.

“Everyone I speak to wants net-zero”, Graham said, adding: “But you cannot have one part of the equation, which is the target, if you don’t have the other part of the equation, which is how the jobs are going to be replaced and what those industries are”. She went on to say that continuing to extract oil and gas from the North Sea “just buys time for us to be able to hopefully convince a government that they have to invest in these new industries”, arguing that “The problem we’ve got at the moment – there isn’t any transition”.

For Graham, the transition to a decarbonised economy is a massive opportunity for the country and for workers, but one that is not currently being taken. “We led the first industrial revolution. We’re nowhere as far as this is concerned with the fourth industrial revolution”, Graham told LFF.

Later in the interview, she went on to say that this transition could be ‘transformational’ for the country. She said: “It could be something transformational on par with the 1945 Labour government if they got it right. I mean, imagine if there was a plan to nationalise our energy at the same time that we were building new industries in Britain for the first time. It’s an unbelievable package.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

The post Sharon Graham: A just transition could be as transformational as the 1945 Labour government appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

The motion began by noting the “catastrophic destruction of Gaza, including infrastructure, hospitals, schools, and universities, following Israel’s genocidal assault since 2023, killing over 70,000 Palestinians, displacing millions, and increase in illegal settlements, military occupation and apartheid”.

It went on to argue that the TUC had an obligation to “answer the call of Palestinian workers for solidarity” and back the “global Palestinian-led movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions” (BDS), which it described as “an effective strategy to pressure Israel to end its ongoing genocide, system of apartheid, occupation and denial of the right of return for refugees”.

As a result of the motion, the TUC will campaign for the UK government to end all military cooperation and arms sales with Israel, and to “impose wide-ranging sanctions on Israel until it complies with international law”. It will also see the TUC “support the Palestinian led BDS movement; trade union-led campaigns in support of Palestine; the workplace days of action; divestment from companies complicit in Israel’s crimes against Palestinians, in cooperation with union members in those companies”.

Alongside AUE and UNISON, delegates from Unite, NASUWT, the National Education Union, PCS and the CWU spoke in favour of the motion.

The motion was welcomed by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). Peter Leary, Deputy Director of PSC said: “This historic vote, committing the Trade Union Congress to support the Palestinian-led movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions, recognises that the limited steps announced by the government fall far short of meeting Britain’s legal obligations not to assist Israel’s ongoing genocide, apartheid, illegal occupation and other violations of international law.

“Trade unions and workers across Britain are right to call for continued political pressure and action in the workplace to end the complicity of companies, institutions and the government in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.

“In response to the call from Palestinian trade unions and the BDS movement, workers across Britain, alongside workers from around the world, will put this motion into practice on Thursday 26 November when they take part in the TUC-backed workplace day of action in solidarity with Palestine.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

The post TUC calls for end to all UK military cooperation with Israel in wide-ranging BDS policy appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

On the final day, delegates supported a motion proposed by the University and College Union (UCU) to build an alternative vision for security “based on decent work, quality public services, equality, climate action, democracy and peace”. The motion called on the TUC to build on the ‘Wages Not Weapons’ campaign, which calls for investment in public services, rather than defence spending.

This is the second year in a row a motion on this issue has been debated at TUC Congress. In 2025, delegates backed the UCU’s original Wages Not Weapons motion, which called for the TUC to ‘prioritise campaigning for public investment in Britain’s public realm’, to ‘commit to a safe, liveable planet’, and to ‘reaffirm that our movement’s priority is welfare and wages, not weapons and war’.

As with last year, this year’s motion was highly contentious, prompting a heated debate in the hall. Alongside UCU, delegates from the National Education Union (NEU) and RMT spoke in favour of the motion. Unite, GMB and Prospect delegates were among those to speak against the motion.

Unlike last year, however, the motion did not go to a ‘card vote’, and the chair deemed it to have been clearly carried within the room.

The motion called for the trade union movement to “campaign for sustained public investment in health, education, housing, social care, social security and climate resilient”.

Alongside this, the motion called for the TUC to “raise awareness of fundamental rights, including the right to conscientious objection and opposition to compulsory military service in the UK”, and “work with the ITUC, ETUC and other partners to promote conflict prevention, diplomacy, international cooperation, human rights and respect for international law”.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

The post TUC votes to build on ‘Wages Not Weapons’ campaign and advance an alternative vision for security appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

It’s also the first TUC Congress since Andy Burnham took over as Labour leader and prime minister. The new government’s plans have therefore inevitably been a major point of discussion throughout the event.

In an interview with LFF at TUC Congress, Calfe gave his views on the early days of Burnham’s government and what his union is seeking to secure for train drivers.

Calfe started by saying that Burnham’s government is “very different from the last one” and “a lot more engaged”, going on to add that he is “looking forward to the next few months of working with the government, particularly for us in rail, but also for working people across the board”.

What should the government’s priorities be? For Calfe, the “most pressing thing we need to get addressed” is the fact that people “with three jobs [are] still struggling to make ends meet”. As such, he told LFF that he wants the government to use the upcoming budget to “make life easier for working people”.

Alongside this, Calfe also called for the government to make changes to the tax system in the budget. He told LFF: “I think the taxation system in the country is probably out of kilter with with where most working people are”, before adding: “there are people with massive wealth in this country who literally pay nothing on that wealth”.

For Calfe, this kind of agenda will not only be important in improving workers’ lives, but it will also help to see off the threat of Reform and the populist right.

He told LFF: “I think if if Labour start making a difference for working people, then the focus will change”.

He went on to say: “People are desperate at the moment and they’ve been desperate for a very long time and they don’t see mainstream politics doing anything for them. And so they’re looking around to see who’s saying what, saying things that make them feel that they’re not being as worse off as they are today.”

Beyond the budget and the economy, Calfe spoke to LFF about another major issue affecting ASLEF members – the climate emergency. Climate is significant for ASLEF for two reasons – first because increasingly frequent extreme weather events have a direct impact on train drivers’ conditions and safety, and second because the rail industry is a central part of the transition to a decarbonised economy.

Calfe is under no illusions about the severity of the issue and the scale of the challenge it poses for both workers and the country, telling LFF: “They’re talking about next year being even hotter or more extreme than this year’s weather has been.” He went on to describe the impact this is having on ASLEF members, saying: “We still have train cabs without air conditioning, and we had our members in 40-50 degree heat for many hours through this summer, and I don’t thin we can put up with that next summer.”

Calfe said that “we need some mitigations in place” to address these impacts on drivers, before going on to address what is needed to secure the future of the railways more broadly. He told LFF: “Network Rail needs the funding to put in place the resilience for climate change”, adding: “Some of the soil conditions have changed because the soil is drying out, and that’s not happened just this year, that’s happened in previous years at other locations where they have to put emergency speed restrictions in place. And so we want to see a long-term plan”.

These calls were echoed by TUC delegates this week, who passed a motion calling for a maximum working temperature and for investment in climate resilience.

The climate crisis isn’t the only big issue facing the railways right now. Privatisation remains on the agenda.

Since Labour came to power in 2024, one policy area it has talked extensively about is its decision to take the rail operators into public ownership. However, this doesn’t mean that the whole of the railway is in public hands.

Presently, the rail operators don’t own the trains themselves. These are instead leased from privately owned rolling stock companies (ROSCOs).

ASLEF is pushing for change here, arguing that the trains themselves should be publicly owned too. At this year’s TUC Congress, the union got the support of the wider trade union movement for its Own Our Trains campaign, which is seeking to get the government to move in that direction.

LFF asked Calfe why the union is prioritising this campaign. “So ROSCOs took £2.9 billion out over the last five years in profit and dividends”, he highlighted, later adding: “It’s really important that the money stays in the industry and doesn’t get siphoned off elsewhere. They’ve [the ROSCOs] come into the industry to make money, but we want the money to stay in the industry.”

He would elsewhere go on to explain what the demands of the campaign are: “We’re not seeking for the government to go and buy the ROSCOs or renege on any contracts they’ve got. What we want them to do is put something different in place, use a different funding model – EUROFIMA or similar, or green bonds as we’ve discussed – as a way of procuring trains that are then owned by the government stroke the operator.” Calfe later added: “We’re not looking to try and buy them out or end up in court for year after year trying to break contracts. What we want to do is we want those contracts or that rolling stock to be procured directly”.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

Image credit: ASLEF

The post Andy Burnham must ‘make life easier for working people’ – interview with ASLEF general secretary Dave Calfe appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

Arday was professor of sociology of education at Cambridge University. He was found dead in his home in August 2026 following intense media scrutiny of his academic work and public claims. The scale and nature of that scrutiny has been widely described as racist, disproportionate and unjustified. Arday’s death is currently subject to an inquest.

The emergency motion was proposed by the University and College Union (UCU) and the National Education Union (NEU).

The motion agreed by the TUC stated that “Black staff and students continue to experience institutional racism, discrimination and inequality across higher education”, and “the treatment of Professor Arday is a product of institutional and systemic racism”.

The motion will see the TUC send condolences to the family and friends of Professor Arday, call on the government to take action to end institutional racism in higher education and to push for the government “to strengthen accountability for institutions that fail to address racial inequality and ensure funding and policy support meaningful anti-racist work”.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

Image credit: ConiferousForest19 – Creative Commons

The post TUC passes motion condemning ‘institutional racist targeting, harassment and humiliation’ of Professor Jason Arday appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

Haigh made the comments in a keynote address to the Congress. She was speaking at the event in place of the prime minister, who has cancelled public engagements following the death of his father.

Haigh told delegates: “We know we need to go further and faster to deliver the scale of change the country expects. But never be in any doubt whose side this Labour government are on.

“Whether it was standing up for workers illegally sacked by P&O Ferries, or changing public procurement to create more good jobs here in Britain, we are proudly on the side of working people.

“And Congress, I can promise you now, under this government there will never be any doubt about whose side we are on.”

Later in her speech, Haigh said: “We’re going to put power back into our communities. We’re going to put power back into the workplace. And together, we’re going to put power back into the hands of working people.”

Haigh concluded her speech by saying: “Every single day in government we are campaigning against the vested interests, the forces trying to stop progress; against the unaccountable crypto billionaires living thousands of miles away who think our democracy is up for sale; against the politicians who pretend to be on the side of workers but pocket millions in undeclared donations and speak openly about their plans to strip working people of the very protections they rely on; against the far-right ringleaders marching on our streets in balaclavas seeking to spread fear and division in our communities; against all those who talk down our country and say that things can’t better, that this can’t be done.

“Congress, today we recommit ourselves to our collective endeavour, to turn the page on four decades of lost opportunity, to deliver the change our country is crying out for, and to build a future that the people we represent expect and deserve.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

The post Louise Haigh tells TUC Congress Labour government is ‘proudly on the side of working people’ appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

Begum spoke at a meeting titled ‘For an Irreversible Shift in the Balance of Power and Wealth’ hosted by Arise and the General Federation of Trade Unions.

Speaking about prime minister Andy Burnham’s stated intention to reverse 40 years of neoliberalism, Begum told the meeting: “What is said against neoliberalism will be rendered meaningless, in my opinion, completely meaningless if our government is not willing to end the disastrous experiments with privatisation that have robbed our country and our people of hundreds of billions of pounds.”

Begum then went on to specifically discuss the water sector. She told the meeting: “In water, firms are operating like a criminal racket – discharging thousands of hours of raw sewage into waterways [and] hiking bills every year, with almost £100 billion in dividends since privatisation.”

Later, Begum criticised the Labour government for having not yet ended water privatisation. She told the meeting: “The public are completely incensed about it, I’m sure we can all agree. But I cannot accept the government backing away from even the idea of using special administration measures, even for Thames Water.”

She later added: “I think we should be having a conversation about taking all water firms into public ownership.”

In her concluding remarks, Begum told the meeting: “We have to keep demanding an economy that works in the interests of workers and the wider public. I think public ownership has to be at its heart.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

The post Privatised water firms acting “like a criminal racket”, Apsana Begum MP claims appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.