Frances O'Grady

You just wish sometimes that people would treat you like a human being rather than seeing your gender first and who you are second. ”

I think being a mother helps keep your feet on the ground. There's very little dignity in parenthood. It's a great leveller. ”

Washing dishes as a 17-year-old in an Oxford college and seeing the privileged lifestyles of the undergraduates there convinced me that a system that allowed luxury for the few at the expense of the many needed to be challenged. ”

A business is good if it gives a decent day's reward for a decent day's work, treats people decently, and gives them a voice at the top. ”

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. ”

The implication that women work for pin money and can manage on a worse pension, presumably by relying on husbands, riles. But even more galling for women is that few government ministers seem to even appreciate the value of the work they do. ”

I want a society that provides decent jobs for those who can work and decent security for those can't. ”

There is nothing that says unions have a God-given right to be there. We have to work at it and make ourselves relevant to every section of the workforce. ”

As long as the number one worry for people, keeping them up at nights, is whether they're going to have a job in the morning, then they are less likely to resist unfair changes, or unfair treatment, or cuts in real pay at work. ”

Never has a strong, responsible trade union movement been so needed. With austerity policies biting hard and with no evidence that they are working, people at work need the TUC to speak up for them now more than ever. ”