Trade unions have a woman problem

In capitulating to trans-mania, the movement has abandoned vulnerable female workers

Some of the Darlington nurses (photo: Christian Concern)

Something significant occurred in the trade union movement a couple of months ago. A new union was born. You’re unlikely to be aware of this development, as few even within the movement itself saw fit to remark upon it. Yet it ought to be seen as an exciting event. After all, in uniting and organising to overcome injustice and oppression in the workplace, the individuals involved in the creation of this new entity were acting in the very best traditions of trade unionism.

I am speaking about the formation of the Darlington Nursing Union (DNU). The organisation came into existence following a row between management and a group of nurses at Darlington Memorial hospital. The nurses were forced to share a changing room with a biological male who identified as a woman and, unsurprisingly, they were uneasy about the arrangement. The man, they said, had made them feel ‘unsafe’ after he ‘lingered too long’ and ‘stared at their breasts’ as they were changing. When they went to HR, they were told they needed to be ‘more inclusive’. They have since launched a legal action for discrimination and harassment against the NHS trust that runs the hospital.

Sadly, the women did not receive the support they had a right to expect from Unison, their union at the time. So they took the initiative and launched their own outfit. Having done so, they managed to secure a meeting with the health secretary, Wes Streeting, who was at least willing to hear their concerns. This apparently irked the president of Unison, Steve North, who duly went on to social media and condemned Streeting for ‘pandering to anti-trans bigotry’.

It would be comforting to believe that Unison’s failure to fight the corner of these brave women was merely an aberration. But it wasn’t. As female workers up and down the country struggle valiantly to defend their sex-based rights from gender militants, the trade union movement has largely abandoned them. Worse, parts of it – witness comrade North – have come to treat them as the enemy within – as worthy as any rogue employer of being faced down and demonised.

The emergence of the DNU coincides with another high-profile employment tribunal case currently playing out in Scotland. There, nurse Sandie Peggie brought a claim against her employer, NHS Fife, after – you’ve guessed it – being made to share changing facilities with biological males. Peggie had been suspended from work after challenging one colleague when he entered the space. While the tribunal was proceeding, it was revealed that Peggie would be made by her employer to face an internal conduct hearing.

Peggie was reportedly denied assistance by her trade union, the Royal College of Nursing and, once again, the rest of the movement has largely given the case a wide berth. Few, if any, trade unionists of note have rallied to Peggie’s defence.

Let me stress that I am a trade unionist to my bones. I joined the GMB at 16 when I was stacking supermarket shelves and ended up serving on the national executive of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). But I don’t hesitate to say that I find the betrayal by my movement of women such as the Darlington nurses and Sandie Peggie utterly shameful. These courageous individuals, and others like them, have been deserted in their hour of need by a movement whose historical mission was to provide a voice for those facing injustice and intimidation in the workplace.

It isn’t hard to grasp the reason. Like so many other of our institutions, unions – most of them, at any rate – have been captured by the ideology of hyper-progressivism. Not ordinary rank-and-file trade unionists, many of whom are aghast at the turn of events, but the upper echelons of the movement, which are replete these days with graduates, Guardianistas, social radicals and policy wonks but far too light on ‘normies’ from traditional working-class backgrounds and with first-hand experience of life at the coalface or on the shop floor.

Don’t get me wrong, trade unions are still a force for good. The evidence shows that, when it comes to pay and conditions of service, employees in unionised workplaces fare better than their non-unionised counterparts. And there are thousands of decent workplace reps who strive every day to improve the lives of the members they represent. But the movement’s leadership has lost its way, and its refusal to lend weight to the fight by women to defend their sex-based rights throws that reality into sharp relief.

I have spoken to female fellow members of the FBU who fought for years to secure single-sex facilities – changing areas, washrooms and the like – on fire stations. Now they fear that those hard-won advances will be rolled back. For its part, the FBU leadership has spent the past few years largely ignoring their concerns. In 2018, it adopted a position in favour of gender self-identification, including the right of biological males to compete in women’s sports. I was on the executive of the union at the time and spoke against the proposal.

Recently, the FBU’s assistant general secretary – its second in command – argued that Rosie Duffield should have been expelled from the Labour party before she left it. The same person once declared on social media – I promise this is true – that he would have ‘no problem’ with his young daughter sharing a changing room with a biological male who identified as a woman. Not so long ago, this sort of thing might have piqued the interest of social services. Now it is held up as some kind of principled stand against bigotry and prejudice.

When, in 2021, the employment appeal tribunal decided, in the case of Forstater v CGD Europe, that gender-critical views were protected for the purposes of equality law, it represented a major victory not only for women but for the principle of freedom of expression. Yet much of the trade union movement remained tight-lipped at the ruling. Not the movement’s umbrella body, the TUC, mind. It issued a downbeat statement reminding everyone that the ruling did not give a green light to anyone thinking of discriminating against or harassing ‘trans and non-binary workers’. It had little more than that to say on the matter.

Though there are signs that the type of hyper-progressivism that has enabled these violations against female workers is in retreat in some of our institutions, there is scant evidence that trade unions have yet got the message. While Sandie Peggie was sitting in her tribunal hearing, the Unison women’s conference passed a resolution declaring that ‘transwomen are women, and transmen are men’ and - quite dishonest, this - ‘women’s rights are not diminished by trans people having more rights’. It was reported that no delegate spoke against the resolution – almost certainly a sign of the atmosphere of intimidation created by the pro-trans lobby rather than any likelihood that nobody held a dissenting view.

I have no doubt that the failure of the trade union movement to rally to the defence of female workers when, in many cases, they were at their most vulnerable will go down as a moment of ignominy in its otherwise proud history - a time when it elevated the extreme and illiterate demands of a small but vocal minority over the rights of an entire sex class.

Well, this trade unionist wants no part of it. I stand with the Darlington nurses and with Sandie Peggie. They are my sisters. And they have my solidarity.

You can follow the Darlington Nursing Union on ‘X’: @DarlingtonUnion.

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A reminder that you can follow me on ‘X’: @PaulEmbery