Stirring images of striking miners at Orgreave, and the treatment meted out to them by the police at the height of the dispute in 1984-85, were in the news again last week, as it was announced that there will be no formal investigation of the incident. This is the picture of trade unionism that is seared on the British consciousness – militant, male, unflinching in the face of both police brutality and the equally implacable Mrs T.
Frances O’Grady, the TUC’s general secretary – sitting in her cheerful wood-panelled London office on a sultry day and wearing a flowery sundress and sandals – hardly fits that stereotype. Yet with David Cameron and his Conservative colleagues emboldened by their surprise victory at the general election, the leader of today’s trade union movement feels she is having to settle scores that date back to those days.
Unless we have a trained, healthy workforce, we can't tackle productivity, which caps aspirations and living standards
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