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Brendan Barber

Brendan Barber

I’m General Secretary of the TUC, the 9th person to hold the position since its introduction in 1922. I’ve been with the organisation since 1975, working in different roles in industrial relations and communications, as well as Deputy General Secretary until 2003, when I was elected General Secretary by the TUC’s General Council. I’m responsible for the overall operation of the TUC, and for leading the implementation of policies set by our annual Congress and the General Council.
I studied at City University in London, and took a sabbatical year as President of the City University Students Union, as well as working for a year with VSO in Ghana. I’m a Non-Executive Director of the Court of the Bank of England, and have done turns as a member of the ACAS Council and of Sport England. The latter is close to my heart as I’m a keen supporter of Everton Football Club, though you’ll also find me occasionally at home games of Vauxhall Conference side Barnet, and when I get the chance I enjoy a round or three of golf.

  • Economics

    We need a huge campaign against the cuts

    8th September 2010 — Filed under: Economics, Politics

    Brendan Barber Brendan Barber

    Next week the TUC holds its most important Congress in decades. We face government policies that will do great damage to this country. Its programme of cuts, privatisation and redrawing the state is far more radical and dangerous than we have seen since the 1930s. Almost no part of the country, our economy or society will be left untouched.

    The spending cuts threaten to choke off what is an extremely fragile recovery. At worst we face a double-dip recession. At best, we will have years of jobless growth and a dire start in life for a generation of young people.

    Our opponents often portray us as a vested interest simply defending public sector jobs. Well it’s certainly our job to protect our members, but this is just as much about private sector workers and the wider economy too.

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  • Working Life

    Deregulation is not dead – But it should be

    8th July 2010 — Filed under: Working Life

    Brendan Barber Brendan Barber
    Brendan will be debating the future of employment regulation against the BCC’s David Frost at a lunchtime event on July 15. You can read a response from David Frost here, or come to the debate itself by registering online at isderegulationdead.org.uk.

    Over the last few decades the business lobby has never been slow to tell us that red tape destroys jobs. And by red tape they often mean decent rights for people at work. Before the introduction of the minimum wage and other rights, we were warned of rising unemployment and a reduction in job creation. But doomsday never came to pass – instead the UK experienced its longest period of growth for decades.

    What brought that growth to an end was the biggest downturn in the world economy since the 1920s. Businesses have gone bust. Working people throughout the world have lost their jobs. Public services face deep cuts as countries struggle with the holes in their finances caused by the recession.

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  • Economics

    Budget: Economically dangerous – socially divisive

    22nd June 2010 — Filed under: Economics

    Brendan Barber Brendan Barber

    This Budget got the big judgement about the economy wrong.

    The economy is still fragile, and today’s measures will certainly slow recovery and could well stop it in its tracks. Spending and benefit cuts together with the VAT increase will take much needed spending power out of the economy. The private sector has been hit as hard as the public sector today.

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  • Pensions & Investment

    Public sector pension costs are being presented in a highly selective way

    15th June 2010 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

    Brendan Barber Brendan Barber

    Looking at the papers today, Ministers are presenting the costs of public sector pensions in a highly selective way. They aren’t comparing like with like, and have not been clear that a main cause of the increased net cost of public sector pensions is their decision to freeze public sector pay.

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  • Working Life

    Young Review: Health and safety gone bad

    14th June 2010 — Filed under: Working Life

    Brendan Barber Brendan Barber

    We’re concerned about this morning’s announcements of a new review of health and safety legislation. Lord Young of Graffam plans to:

    ‘investigate concerns over the application and perception of health and safety legislation, together with the rise of the compensation culture over the last decade’.

    This doesn’t look to be an open and frank review aimed at achieving better regulation. Instead it’s an attempt to undermine the already limited protection that workers have from real risks at work, by focusing on the ‘needs’ of business.

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  • Politics

    Queen’s Speech: Overwhelming focus on the deficit is a mistake

    25th May 2010 — Filed under: Politics

    Brendan Barber Brendan Barber

    Today’s Queen’s Speech contains important issues to welcome – restoring the state pension link with earnings, cracking down on high-risk activities in the City, and an extra push on green energy. Extending flexible working rights and further action to close the pay gap could also bring positive changes to UK workplaces.

    But plans to scrap important initiatives to get young people into work, abolish key public bodies and throw public sector workers on the dole will only worsen the fragile economic situation.

    The Government’s overwhelming focus on reducing the deficit, when ministers should be concentrating on restoring growth and halting rising unemployment, is a huge mistake.

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  • Labour market

    Wrong time to cut youth employment programmes

    24th May 2010 — Filed under: Labour market

    Brendan Barber Brendan Barber

    The £6.2bn of spending cuts announced by the Government today are deeply worrying. With the UK economy and the economies of our trading partners in Europe so fragile, this is not the right time to be cutting back.

    According to the Treasury document, the Government intends to save:

    “£320m from ending ineffective elements of employment programmes, including ending further rollout of temporary jobs through the Young Person’s Guarantee (the ‘Future Jobs Fund’) and removing recruitment subsidies from the ‘Six-Month Offer’.”

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  • Politics

    Labour needs to understand the electorate again

    22nd May 2010 — Filed under: Politics

    Brendan Barber Brendan Barber

    This post is taken from my speech to Progress‘ annual conference today. You can read a full copy of my speech on the TUC website.

    Elections should be great debates about competing visions and priorities, when parties show they understand peoples’ real lives and are on their side, both in their daily struggles and long term dreams. But at times during this campaign, Labour seemed to have lost confidence in its core values, with its passion for change worn down by the cares of office.

    I’ve always been a great admirer of the way that, in the run up to 1997, the Party put together a winning electoral coalition. It clearly understood the country better than the outgoing Government and had policies that spoke to peoples’ concerns. That landslide was a huge historic achievement.

    The problem is that what went wrong for Labour in the run up to this election was completely different to what kept it out of office in the 1980s and 1990s.

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  • Politics

    New government: No mandate to risk the recovery

    12th May 2010 — Filed under: Politics

    Brendan Barber Brendan Barber

    This new Government comes to power at a very difficult time for the economy. As today’s unemployment figures show, we’re still suffering from the effects of the deep recession. The recovery is fragile and the public finances gap needs to be closed.

    An inconclusive election has certainly not provided a mandate for swingeing cuts in public services. Nor should new Ministers do anything that risks recovery, as that will play the major part in restoring public finances.

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  • Economics

    Budget 2010: Responsibility without risks

    24th March 2010 — Filed under: Economics

    Brendan Barber Brendan Barber

    Alistair Darling has delivered a measured Budget that took no risks with the recovery and showed that the Government’s handling of the recession is working.

    Better than expected tax income and lower unemployment has given the Chancellor scope to extend the jobs guarantee for young people and provide some extra money for tackling poverty. Support for business, a green investment bank and for industrial policy are welcome steps in rebalancing the economy away from finance.

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