I WAS blown away at last weekend’s TUC black workers’ conference by the number of amazing black women making such a real difference to the trade union movement.
 
It wasn’t always like this!
 
I have been coming to the black workers’ conference since before it was a conference. We used to have a TUC seminar where the black great and the good would come and tell us to calm down and be more patient for change.
 
There were rarely that many black women at those “tellings off,” and it took years before the numbers significantly improved so the likes of Dawn Butler, Doreen Cameron and Sharon Holder could come through their unions to join Unison’s Gloria Mills.
 
Now I see wonderful black women taking senior positions and making a real difference to their members.
 
Mary Sithole, the national treasurer of the TSSA transport union, is one of the new leaders of the British trade union movement, but is far too shy to admit it.
 
Sithole got up to move TSSA’s motion at the conference, but it would have escaped most people’s attention that she actually told them she was the national treasurer of her union.
 
That bit was barely audible, but the rest of the speech was fantastic and assertive.
 
I can’t think of a single bloke I have ever met in the trade union movement who wouldn’t have been loud and clear about holding such an important role.
 
Sithole, originally from Zimbabwe, is a front-line transport worker with over 25 years of experience in the railway industry.
 
She went back to school while raising her children, earned a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance, a Certificate in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and diplomas in both Employment Law and Occupational Health and Safety.
 
She is a real leader in the male-dominated industry that my dad worked in for more than 30 years. She has had to kick down barriers to get anywhere and is a truly inspirational figure.
 
She reminds me very much of the forever inspirational Michelle Codrington-Rogers from the NASUWT.
 
Codrington-Rogers is a teacher in Oxfordshire, a past president of her union and a leader of the TUC race relations committee for many years. She was the president of her union overlapping with Patrick Roach as the general secretary.
 
I have been thinking hard about whether I can remember two black people being in such leadership roles of their unions in Britain at the same time. I don’t know if this has ever happened before?
 
I may be wrong — and I would be pleased to be corrected — but this is still a major landmark for one of our big unions.
 
Not content with being a formidable trade unionist — with what she calls her “teacher’s voice” to demand attention — she is also one of the best people I know.
 
I didn’t realise until I was at the conference that Farzana Jumma from the GMB was now a member of the TUC general council and the current chair of the race relations committee.
 
I remember being on the committee with Jumma and always being impressed by how smart and considered she was. She is an astonishing trade union activist and will easily follow in the shoes of some great black trade unionists that have held the role in previous years, such as Gloria Mills, Leslie Mannaseh and Bob Purkiss.
 
I also bumped into my good friend Sharon Harding, who was leading Unite’s delegation to the conference.
 
I have known Harding for probably nearly as long as I have been a trade unionist. Like Sithole, she is among those black women who never feel the need to brag about how important they are.
 
Harding is a regional officer for her union in the West Midlands and has graduated easily to the national stage to work on race equality.
 
When she told me this at the weekend, I was excited for her and I hope showed it. The truth was I thought inside that her talents as a trade unionist have always been obvious to me, so — about time!
 
There are so many more black women trade unionists I can name/embarrass, such as the brilliant Mel Mullings of the RMT, Taranjit Chana from GMB, Zita Holbourne of Artists’ Union England and Kasey LeGall, the secretary of the Fire Brigades Union black members.
 
I remember back in the mid-1980s being asked by the FBU’s legendary general secretary Ken Cameron to help set up the union’s black members’ section.
 
I’m proud that I am still able to help the union tackle some of the very real problems facing black firefighters and control staff.
 
LeGall has just taken over as secretary of the black members’ section of the union, and that simply blows my mind when I think of when I started this road with the union.
 
The fire service was mainly white men — which it still is — but there were too few women and too few black folks in the ranks. Those who were in the service faced unimaginable levels of harassment — many still do.
 
To see a sister stepping up into the leadership of the body alongside the excellent Karen Bell — who chairs the committee — shows the sea change that has taken place, albeit there is an intimidating amount of work still to do.
 
Anyone who underestimates any of these formidable sisters is in for a nasty shock, and they will probably deserve it.
 
There are loads of sisters I could name — and that’s actually my point.
 
When I set out on my trade union journey more years ago than I care to count, it was a big deal to see a black sister standing up and able to announce that they were making headway in the movement.
 
Aside from the pride that I have in seeing so many excellent black sisters breaking through, I must be clear that this is not a question of “diversity.”
 
I have never thought that a numbers game was good enough. We have to be in a position to challenge the power structures that have held back black women in society, including, of course, within the trade union movement.
 
The great thing I am witness to is the uncompromising politics of the black women who are breaking through. It means that nobody will be able to get away with treating this as a tick-box exercise.
 
The trade union movement in Britain is being hit by a whirlwind of excellent black women’s activity — long may it continue.
 
The rest of us need to do what we can to help more to come through. Some of us just need to step aside.