UNITE leader Sharon Graham says she may be on the “naughty step” for confronting Labour over policy this week — but wishes more unions would take a tougher stance with the party.

So she wasn’t reassured by Angela Rayner’s TUC address on Tuesday?

“Well, the reason I’ve come out on this [National Policy Forum] document — sounds very boring, doesn’t it? But the reason I’ve been so hard-line is because changes Labour has made to the document are things that cost no money.

“Take trade union access. It’s the first route to getting representation for working people and key to raising pay. You saw the figures that we got a 7.8 per cent rise in average pay in the three months to July.

“This is because the unions have pushed pay up higher with the actions we’ve taken this year. It’s the union premium if you like, putting more money in workers’ pockets.

“In the NPF document they’ve changed the wording, from a union right to access workplaces to access ‘where there’s support.’

“Back in 1997 it was supposed to be you get recognition if the majority of people want it, then it was changed to ‘support.’ Thirteen thousand applications for recognition have been put in since 1997 and half of them have been lost because the hurdles are too high to jump.

“The problem with the NPF changes is they put in hurdles to jump that were not envisaged. 

“And if they’re going to change things like that, on access, which leads to collective bargaining, which leads to representation for workers, which leads to unions pushing up pay on site — and which doesn’t cost anything — it’s an ideological position.”

It’s not just access to workplaces that bothers her. This week’s TUC endorsed Unite’s policy to renationalise the energy sector — for which the union has produced a costed plan.

“It’s absolutely fundamental that we nationalise the grid. If you’re going to save UK steel, you’ve got to have the grid.”

Labour claims to need to assess the financial implications of such a policy — but Unite has costed it.

“OK it would cost £90 billion to renationalise energy, but then it would be on the assets of the country. The £45bn that the energy companies make in profit, we’d be making some of that. So for me this is not about affordability, it’s a choice.”

Graham has accused Labour of sounding like a “nineties tribute act” trying to flog yesterday’s solutions to today’s problems.

“It’s not 1997. Forget whether their policies in 1997 were good or bad, the approach is not going to work, the damage to the economy is far worse.”

The Blair government raised spending by relying on rising taxes from a growing economy, as well as financial tricks that saddled much of the public sector with private-sector debt.

“It can’t be a repeat of that. To me we need to look at controlling our national infrastructure. At how you divide the pie in this £2.5 trillion economy.

“Offer that and people will be jumping out the door to vote Labour, which is better than people just thinking ‘maybe they’re better than the other lot.’ They are better, that’s not the debate, but if they want to change Britain they need to be more like the 1945 government than the 1997 one.”

Tony Blair in yesterday’s Financial Times argued that it was because the economy was in poor shape that Labour should avoid raising spending.

“Well in 1945 it was definitely in worse shape! It’s a question of choices.

“It’s like the choices they have made in responding to inflation. I’ve been banging on for nearly 18 months that rampant profiteering is what’s driving inflation.

“Even the Bank of England’s own research now says that, but decision-makers have been ignoring it.

“Their interest rate rises haven’t worked because they’re trying to target the wrong thing. They’ve not touched profiteering. Our union’s research showed that the FTSE  350 companies have 89 per cent higher profit margins than before the pandemic.

“The other thing is we are vulnerable because we don’t own things like our own energy sector. Energy cost hikes have put 4.1 per cent on inflation.

“France isn’t on a different planet, but it owns its own energy, and so it’s had more control of prices.”

So how does Unite see these policies being pushed onto Labour’s agenda when it seems to reluctant to listen?

“We can’t just moan about these things. We’ve talked before about how we use leverage in disputes and the importance of influencing decision-makers.

“So for politicians that means voters. There’s no point trying to influence Labour monetarily, business is coming in with funds now they think Labour will be in power so whatever we do won’t touch the sides. 

“So we need to take the kind of things we say when sitting in a room with Keir Starmer to the electorate. Go into steel towns and say Save Our Steel is vital for these communities.

“Promote nationalisation of energy, our steel procurement policy and a just transition for oil and gas. The steel campaign we take into the steel towns, the just transition we focus on Scotland, energy we are taking into nine different areas of England.

“And when politicians come into these areas looking for votes they will find maybe they aren’t going to get them unless they offer these policies.”

The Office for National Statistics reported this week that in the summer wages rose in line with inflation after years of lagging behind. Because of unions?

“Absolutely. The jobs, pay and conditions agenda is about jobs, pay and conditions but it’s also about bringing more people into the unions and being able to shift employers that way.

“We’ve paid out £32 million in strike pay — it’s a lot, but we’ve put £400m back into workers’ pockets from the strikes, so that’s a return I’ll take any day.

“That’s how we’ve bucked the trend on membership, we’ve had a net gain of 30,000 members since I became leader which bucks a trend of decline across the movement.”

In 2022 union membership fell by 200,000 overall, with a majority of those leaving women. As Unite’s first woman leader how does she see problems in recruiting and retaining women?

“I see equalities as very much an industrial issue. We’re bringing women together on combines who work for the companies where we have the most women members, and saying to the companies, what do you do for women?

“Partly on jobs, pay and conditions because pay is important for women too. But also things like our Get Me Home Safely campaign. You’ve got women coming out of workplaces at ridiculous times of night or in the early hours, there have been attacks on them trying to get home, it’s important that when a worker leaves the premises they are able to get home safely.

“So women’s issues are industrial issues and they should be dealt with at the bargaining table. And that’s how we’ve bucked that membership trend.”

Unite is growing, winning in the workplace and ready to take its ideas to the country — confident they will get an enthusiastic reception.

“I cannot understand why anybody thinks public ownership of our national assets is ridiculously radical. Of course we should have control.”