Frances O'Grady

“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.”

“I do know what it's like to worry about bills, I do know what it's like to worry about even finding a child-minder, never mind paying them.”

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

“From the ashes of a financial crash, there is a chance to create a new economic settlement that is more equal, sustainable and democratic.”

“The TUC's new slogan 'a future that works' sets a profound challenge. Austerity and rapid deficit reduction is failing in its own terms, but even at its best it is short-sighted, muddle-through politics with no vision of a new economic model.”

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

“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.”

“It is not natural or inevitable that half the world goes hungry; that the freedom of markets trumps protection of the planet; or that citizens' rights come second to those of corporations.”

“When I look at my daughter, who's 24, she is much more confident than I ever was and her expectations are higher. But I worry that there is a backlash brewing against progress on equality.”

“Britain is a textbook case of how growing inequality leads to economic crisis. The years before the crash were marked by a sharp rise in remortgaging and the growth of 0 percent balance transfer credit cards. By 2008 the UK had the highest ratio of household debt to GDP of any major economy.”

“I like independent films... European films. I do go and see popular films as well because my kids force me.”

“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.”

“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 suspect there are people in all walks of life who need to be dragged into the 21st century in terms of attitudes towards women.”

“Ordinary people who have lots of good ideas want more than a suggestion box, and they need a union to represent that thinking.”

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

“Although there's a lot of focus on the Lib Dems, we need to keep our eyes on the far right of the Tories, who I suspect will become increasingly impatient in their appetite for tax cuts, deregulation and shrinking the state even further.”

“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.”

“My first hero, as a teenager, was James Connolly. I remember discovering that he was a feminist, and that was an eye-opener, coming from a man of such poverty.”

“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.”