YouSaid · the spoken record

Paul Nowak

lines on the record: 46
first: 2023-09-07
most recent: 2023-09-07
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Of course, I am. I mean, that's what trade unions are about. I mean, it's a bring together working people collectively and reshape the balance of power in workplaces and beyond. And I'll never apologize for that because at the end of the day, I think the people that we stand up for, that we represent, they need that voice. And that's what unions are all about. And, you know, funnily enough, some of them will vote for different political parties. Some of them will hold different political views. I want to make sure their voice is heard by politicians, whoever they are.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“How does it go? Because my daddy's granddaddy's granddaddy's help Britannia rule the life. And on and on, but Oh, come on.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, that was inspired by Boris's party enduring lockdown. I have to say, I'm not going to worry the Spotify charts with my musical contributions. But, you know, some people play golf to relax. I don't know why. Some people go walking. Some people drink themselves silly. I pick up the guitar and knock out the odd tune. No.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think so. I mean, it was to me when I got first appointed to the job, the family had got my granddad who had worked in English electric all his life when he retired. They gave him a Roberts radio and they gave him a gold watch and the family, that watch had been in a drawer for decades probably and the family got the watch out and got it working again and had it inscribed to your granddad Joe would have been proud. As I said, I'm so proud of my family and that sort of people who've worked hard, played hard, looked after each other, looked after the people around them. And so it will be an emotional moment. But, you know, I mean, being TC General Secretary, you know, proud moment, humbling moment, and a scary moment as well, to be frank.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it was something clearly has gone wrong and you warned me about libelin anyone before we came on air so I'll be very careful about what I say. I mean I love going to the match. I love going whether it's with my daughter, my sons, my brother, my dad. It's a family thing, but I do worry that the solar football has been stripped out and it does leave behind, you know, I mean, the team that's got the most money is the team most likely to win the premiership. I mean, I'm not going to predict the final standards this season, but I reckon City will be somewhere near the top.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The Liberal Part So 1995, and my kids have never seen them win anything. I mean, I've never heard them utter the immortal words. Why did you make us become Evitonians? I know they're thinking it sometimes.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't look it though, do I? Come on. No, quite. Exactly. I am the only one in our family who's lost his hair. Ah, yeah, well, let's not talk about that to share challenge next week. Let's talk instead.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It has to face down the same siren voices from the business lobby that in 1997 told everybody that national minimum wage would cost us a million jobs and to drive the UK economy off the edge of a cliff. Funnily enough, none of that happened. The CBI called it wrong there. The other employers' organisations called it wrong. And I think actually I speak to lots of good employers all the time. I was up in Airbus in North Wales a few weeks ago. A company like Airbus has got nothing at all to fear from the New Deal for workers because they've got a strong relationship with their union, they've got really well organised workplaces, a world-class company. But what we do need to do is drive out the cowboys. And I think that new deal for work would help us get a level playing field for good employers as well.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And that is 90% of the work that unions do. So, Greg's also have a relationship with the Baker's Union. I was up in BNM Bargains in Runcorn in one of their warehouse and distribution centres. Usdor, our shop workers union, working really closely with management there. They've turned a situation around where they had 500% labour turnover. So people come into work and they're saying at the end of the week, never going back there again. 500% labour turnover completely transformed because of the work the unions and employers have done together. Now, I say 90% of our work, that's what we do with employees. We want our members to work for successful organisations. But it also does mean when you've got an employer that's taken the mickey out of workers, like Amazon, we're going to stand up and we're going to fight them. And I think ultimately we will get a union voice in Amazon and elsewhere.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's frustrating, and I think there are very good reasons for it, but let me tell you something through one to try and so our retail unions will tell you that every year they're recruiting around a quarter of their membership just to stay still because of the nature of the industry, where people are cycling in and out of employment. We've been dealing with, you know, if you think back to 1979 and the cumulative years of all those conservative governments, wave after wave, we've got this latest attack on the right to strike from the current government of anti-union legislation. Legislation designed to make it difficult for unions to organise. So take those warehouses. I was up at Amazon in Coventry where the GMB is trying to organise warehouse workers. We've got no right to access the workplace. We've got no right to have contact details of the workers who work there. The company can play fast and loose with the union recognition legislation to frustrate the union's attempts to get representation. So it's not a level playing field or a fair...”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You see, first and foremost, I don't see things through the prism of the Labour Party. I think I've got to represent the views of our five and a half million members and make sure the stuff that matters to them is on the agenda for all politicians. But I do think it's about trying to reflect back to politicians. And again, all politicians, I mean, if Jeremy Hunt wants to pick up those ideas in the autumn statements, I'd be absolutely cock a hoop. I suspect he won't, but I would be cock-a-hoop. I'd be stunned. But, you know, China reflect, I mean, as I say, majority of conservative voters feel that there's scope to increase taxes on the wealthy. Majority Conservative voters would love to see things like farm and rehire outlawed. And I think it's about foregrounding what is the mainstream view of the public out there to politicians across the spectrum.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, no, listen, I've got a huge amount of respect for Rachel. I hope that she's our next Chancellor because I think that we need a fundamental change of approach in number 10 and number 11. But on this issue, I'm just going to continue to bang the drum because I think it's really important. I mean, as I say, there is something fundamentally broken with our taxation system. It hasn't taken into account the fact that the wealth of the top 1% in this country has grown 31 times faster than the rest of us over the last decade. We've got to do something about that.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't think it's my job to design the tax code for the country. And I don't even think it's actually Labor's job to set out maybe 12 months out from an election the detail of all of their tax plans. But we've put forward ideas like equalizing capital gains tax with income tax, like a wealth tax on those who hold more than £3 million in assets, like taxing the excess profits of the oil and gas giant and the banks. And these are all things that have got huge public support, huge public support. I mean, a majority Conservative voters feel that there's a need to tax wealth more fairly in this country.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A broader conversation, I think, about inequality in this country, and a time when I go around the country talking to those members who can't make ends meet. Portugal had its best ever year for sales in the UK last year, Footy one hundred chief executives saw the pay go up by half a million pounds in pay rises not pay pay rises last year nineteen percent best ever year best two years I should say for city bonuses since the financial crash so I want a conversation about how do we make sure we tax wealth and not work and how do we make sure that we rebalance our economy not just the workplace”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They're going to consult on employment status. I know and believe that that package will be part and parcel of Labour's manifesto going into the next election. And I've got every confidence, Keir said at our Congress last year, Angela will say it this year. It's a first 100 day priority for an income and Labour government. And that's what we need. Because we need to reset the balance of power in workplaces. But we also need to have a...”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, let's start with workers' rights though, because Angela Rayner will come to our Congress on the Tuesday and she'll talk about Labour's New Deal for Workers, and that will be potentially transformative program in terms of workers right in this country. I could list out all of the things that are in there, but a ban on fire and rehire, tackling zero hours contracts, union right to access the workplace, blah, blah, I could go on. I could go on, Nick. They've got a bit of conversation.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, well, I think it may have brought a little bit of clarity to those discussions and encouraged the government to get to the negotiating table earlier.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Your letter is being processed, and we need to get, and you know what it's not just he's our current Chancellor, Jeremy Hunter's, I think, said in front of select committees two, maybe three times that he's happy to meet with me personally, meet with the head of the TUC. A meeting hasn't happened. We were told it can't happen while there are ongoing public sector pay disputes, to be fair, if the TUC could never talk to the union while there was a dispute between one bit of government and a union. We would never meet ever full stop.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I do, and I think Francis in particular takes a lot of credit for that. I mean, I don't think it would happen and certainly wouldn't happen to the scale that we saw it happen without our intervention. I mean, a couple of weeks before the Chancellor announced Fairlow, I'd actually given evidence to a parliamentary select committee just as the lockdown was starting and I said, you're going to need to have a massive short-term job subsidy scheme. That's the only way we're going to keep people in employment, the only way that you're going to get people to be able to keep homes, the livelihoods. We had a series of practical conversations with the Treasury, Francis in particular, talking directly to Rishi Sunak, our team talking to Treasury officials. And I think not just the Farlow scheme, the work we did on safe working, keeping millions of people safe who had to go to work during the pandemic. Wouldn't have happened. Wouldn't have happened without unions sat around the table.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And once you did get his attention, then the conversation was engaged. But as I say, I went in for that meeting with Francis O'Grady, who was then the General Secretary. It's our job to go in and have the conversations that most trade unions wouldn't normally have because, you know, as I say, first and foremost, members come first.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'd like you to be totally clear. You will know much better than mean it. I mean, that sense that you've got to get his attention”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, yes. Ah, it's been an interesting experience. I mean, clearly, how honest do you want me to be? I mean, here's a man I think where you're not honest.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And you know, that's the beauty of trade unions and the beauty. I mean, my job is to represent working people and I don't, you know, whoever's in number 10, whoever's in the department.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, I think when you split the labour and trade union movement, you weaken the labour and trade union movement. And when you split the labour movement generally, you weaken the labour movement. And so I've spent most of my time as a trade unionist and as a Labour Party member trying to build consensus, not agreement on everything, but that sort of sense that a United Party is a party that's more likely to win power. And why do we want to win power? Because we want to make things better for working people.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Leader of the council. I'm not just Derek. And, you know, this was to happen alongside the miners' striker and then Wopi and that sense of a polarization in politics. Is it 100% my politics? No, but I mean, you know, it was a time when people felt that they had to stand up because no one was listening in Westminster. And I think if you look across Britain today, there are lots of towns and places where people feel nobody down there is listening to us. And I think we need to.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. Yeah, but I didn't have to really rewrite it, I just resubmitted it. You know, I think there was a sort of sense of, if you were growing up in that city that you had a government that wasn't interested in the city, mass unemployment, real poverty and despair. People were looking for somebody to stand up and provide an alternative.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On that I mean, there's been a lot written about my period, and I can't remember exactly the perspective I put on that essay whenever it was 30 years ago.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, my wife, who I met at university, but we didn't get together at university, far from it, but she always maintains that the only reason I got my degree was because one of the senior lecturers was a Marxist and I recycled the same essay, effectively four or five times, and he seemed to like it even if no one else did.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, yeah. Well, that would definitely be me. So I got kicked off. So I ended up doing, well, first of all, started Airbus Studies and Countryside Management, which was a bit of an eclectic mix, ended up doing urban studies. And to be honest, I wasn't a great student. I wasn't a great attender. But I shared politics with a couple of lecturers and I think that probably got me through.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It wasn't, well, it wasn't, it wasn't. I started off on a building degree because my dad was moving into the building industry. My uncle was a builder. In fact, he got me and my mate from school and one of his cousins all got places at Liverpool, Polyde, then John Moore's on a building degree. I lasted a year before I was unceremoniously kicked off. So I did urban studies then.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I wouldn't want to overstate my role in those negotiations. I was definitely the junior partner, but I was the one who'd helped organise people on the ground. And in fact, I'm still in touch with a few of those union reps today, as well as a passion for trade unionism. We're also Evertonians and Bruce Springsteen fans. So we meet up occasionally.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the employee said that we weren't sacked, that there was just that the assignments had changed, so we were all off the contract, 80-odd of us off the contract, but don't worry, we'll find you other work. Funnily enough, they never found me other work.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and this was because we were actually working in a unionized employer but for an employment agency and that sort of sense of a two-tier workforce which is so prevalent still today was definitely the case then and we organized well over 100 people into the union I remember it was the first national pay negotiation I'd ever been involved in the union full-time officer came up we had the negotiation with the employee we had to report back to the members all of that sort of stuff and then yeah then you got sent”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah, I mean, I joined, I think the first day I went to Wasda, I worked in the warehouse in the local supermarket when they opened up, and I became a health and safety rep just a couple of months afterwards. And, you know, I think it's a cliche, but it's true the trade union movement has probably been the most important part of my education going on the training courses with other reps, talking to people from different, not just in supermarkets, but working in factories, working in breweries. I mean, it helps you grow up and it gives you a sense of different perspective on life, I suppose.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is why he should never let your brother talk to the media. Yeah, I used to run things like so I used to run the when the Olympics were on I'd run the Olympic Games in R Street, which would be everything from organizing all the races. Obviously carefully calibrated so that me and Rohn won some of them at least. But you know that included you win. I was particularly good at the backwards running. But painting the medals and all the rest of it, I organised dog shows for the local kids, BMX tournaments. I mean, you name it. Street hockey. That was just part of who I was. There's no fun, I think, better than fun that's organized and preferably by me. Yes, I was going to.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And some had families, and the families thought that they'd abandoned them, and they hadn't abandoned them. They'd been deported by the UK authorities. And, you know, I suppose my granddad Joe worked for most of his life at English Electric, but he was always.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, absolutely. And remember, at the end of the Second World War in Liverpool, actually hundreds of Chinese merchant navies, sailors were rounded up and deported from the country.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. And again, I mean, different experiences. My granddad Joe came over during the Second World War with the Polish RAF based in Liverpool, stayed in Liverpool. Granddad Jimmy, or Chinsang, came from Hong Kong, Lamar Island in Hong Kong, and he was a cook in the merchant navy. And again, married an Irish Liverpool woman and stayed in the city. But everybody in Liverpool has got a bit of their family that came from somewhere else. And you can't over-romanticize things. I mean, it's got its fair share of problems we saw just recently, those disgraceful scenes outside the asylum seekers hostel in Knowsley. No city's perfect, but certainly that sort of sense of the value of difference as part of who I am, I suppose.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They were in different parts, I mean, because obviously he also worked at Camelades and the shipyard and in local power stations and stuff, but in part of the North Sea, I mean, you know, certainly the big American drilling companies wanted to keep unions out. How did it shape my view of work? Well, first of all, it gave me an appreciation of hard work. I mean, he was a bloody hard worker, my dad, and I'll appreciate everything he's ever done for us. So I took that ethic from him. But I also, that thing of just being able to stand up for yourself. And sometimes when you got it, I mean, I always remember him telling me when he went for, you know, when you went on the rigs, you had to go for a safety training, go for his welding examinations, being asked to pay effectively a bribe by someone. So they sign off on a certificate so he could work in the North Sea. You're going to be earning a few more, Bob. I'll have a little bit of it.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I used to work in the North Sea two weeks on, two weeks off, but he used to also Nigeria, Abu Dhabi. I mean, sometimes he's away for months on end. And so, I mean, he just went where the work was”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was 10 or 11 at the time, so I don't think I, but I joined a union at the age of 17. I joined the Labour Party at the age of 19. But the fight also came from my mum and dad, my mum in particular. She's like five foot nothing of scouse passion and enthusiasm. You know, maybe I got a little bit of that from her.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We did feel it because you switched on the news or you read the Liverpool echo or the Daily Post and you heard about what was going on with the Militant City Council and that backwards and forwards with the National Labour Party. But there was also a sense, I mean, I grew up, but my granddad lived in Toxet in Liverpool. I was there visiting him in his flat when the riots took place in 81. And it felt like a city. I mean, the Tories famously once said, you know, leave it, manage decline. And it felt like Liverpool was being left to look after itself.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Political fun. I mean, growing up in Merseyside in the 80s and 90s, everybody was political with a big and a small P and so my mum and dad were never members of the Labour Party, were never trade union activists, but they were always politically engaged. And, you know, I mean, it's what we talked about around the dinner table, that and Everton basically, you know. So...”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, they're all different disputes and the TC doesn't represent all of those unions the majority of our health unions did reach agreement and I just make the point on rail Aslef our train drivers union has reached agreements fourteen agreements with train operators the one thing they've got in common is that they're not linked to the DFT so if it's Mersey Rail or Scott Rail or Transport for Wales they've reached agreement what they've not been able to get is agreement full and train operating companies who've got a mandate set by the government and the government needs to move there well”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it is, and I'll give you some examples. So you said our Congress is going to be in Liverpool this year. I've done dozens, hundreds of picket lines over the last eight or nine months since I've been General Secretary. A few in Liverpool in particular with Jacob's biscuits workers. They won 6.7% for their pay rise. Kingsmill Bakery Workers, 8.7%, Liverpool Dockers, 18%. So in the private sector, where employers can afford to pay more, we've definitely forced them to pay more. And in the public sector, if you think back to last year, ministers are saying, here's the outcomes of the pay review bodies. There's no negotiations, there's no new money, there's nothing worth talking about. Actually, in education, in health, in civil service and other areas, our member said, that's not good enough. They took action, they voted for action, and ministers had to move. It's not a land of milk and honey. It's not perfect, but I think our members have demonstrated taking action makes a difference.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Lots of things get me aerated, but I mean, I tell you what really gets me aerated is going out talking to our members, talking to work and people, seeing people who are working hard day in, day out and who can't make ends meet. And that really does, that fires me up because I just think people who go out to work every day, people who try to do the right thing, should be able to not just get by in life. They should be able to take the kids on holiday, buy them a treat, go out for a nice meal. And unfortunately, I meet far too many of our members for whom life is a struggle, not something to enjoy.”
2023-09-07 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Paul Nowak One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source