60 Quotes by Frances O'Grady

Would I describe myself as new Labour? I’m Labour, organised Labour. I think labels have a limited use and that’s where you really get into boy stuff sometimes, just sticking on labels.

Voting to go on strike is not a decision working people take lightly and is always accompanied by a strong sense of injustice at work. The impact of losing a day’s pay is significant, not least for those in the lowest paid jobs who are already on the tightest budgets.

I do know what it’s like to worry about bills, I do know what it’s like to worry about even finding a child-minder, never mind paying them.

The TUC’s new slogan ‘a future that works’ sets a profound challenge. Austerity and rapid deficit reduction is failing in its own terms, but even at its best it is short-sighted, muddle-through politics with no vision of a new economic model.

There are lots of small businesses in Britain that have a pretty tough time but many of them are also parts of supply chains, the leave side roll out JCB but that’s one company, all the experts are saying the economy would take a big hit if we came out of the EU.

I cherish the creation of public space and services, especially health, housing and the comprehensive education system which dared to give so many of us ideas ‘above our station.’

I came from a family where joining a union was the expected thing to do. I’ve always believed that the relationship between an employer and an individual worker is fundamentally unequal.

I’d be happy to have regular face-to-face meetings at Downing Street with David Cameron to argue the case for alternative economic policies.

Although there’s a lot of focus on the Lib Dems, we need to keep our eyes on the far right of the Tories, who I suspect will become increasingly impatient in their appetite for tax cuts, deregulation and shrinking the state even further.