New TUC leader will address attacks on workers’ rights


TUC deputy general secretary Paul Nowak has been announced as the next TUC leader and will take over when Frances O’Grady retires at the end of this year.


Nowak, who will officially take up the post in January 2023, has been a member of TUC staff since 2000, holding posts including regional secretary for the North of England, head of organising and assistant general secretary. 


He has always been a strong proponent of union organising, having been part of the first intake of the TUC’s Organising Academy in 1998. He became an organiser for the then financial services union BIFU when he was 26.


One of his unique selling points for the movement is that: “I know the anxiety of life in temporary and agency jobs first-hand.” Before becoming a trade union official, he worked at Asda, in call centres and as a hostel night porter — always on temporary and agency contracts. 


He said it was “an honour” to become the next TUC general secretary, adding he would “push back on attacks on workers’ rights, make the voices of workers heard, and back our unions to grow and win for their members and for all working people”.