SHAVANAH TAJ’S appointment as acting general secretary of the Wales Trade Union Congress (WTUC) is the first time that a Bame Muslim woman has been appointed to a top union job in Britain.

This is also the first time all four TUC posts in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Britain have been held by women.

Taj joins the WTUC from the Public and Commercial Services Union where she has been the Welsh secretary since 2013.

Her father came to Britain from Pakistan in 1959 and worked in the south Wales steelworks for a long time before being made redundant. He was a shop steward and was the health and safety rep.

“That was in the days of the closed shop and everybody who lived around us were in unions and that was normal.

“Now I work in Cardiff’s iconic Transport House and for me being here is a big deal.

“Whenever we passed this building as a child dad would say that is where we go to sort things out. I asked him what he meant and he said whenever there is a problem at work that is where we have our union meetings.”

I ask Taj what her dad made of her being appointed general secretary and she said that of course he was proud: “But, he told me to make sure I make a difference.”

Clearly, Taj’s upbringing has had a deep impact and she explains how she became involved with unions.

“A friend shared the Voice newspaper with me and there was an advert for something called the TUC organising academy. I went for it and after a difficult 24-hour assessment centre process I was in.

“I didn’t have any direct experience of unions, despite dad’s activism, but I had organised an anti-racism campaign in school when I was a 14-year-old to make people aware of racist graffiti in our community.

“Many of the people I went through the academy with are still in the movement and it really changed the dynamics of how unions worked. It made such a difference, especially the make-up of unions which were full of men doing the big important negotiations.”

Taj is in post until May 2021 while Martin Mansfield is on secondment to work on the Welsh government’s Social Partnership Bill — and she is a woman in a hurry as the Welsh Parliament election is due in 2021.

“While we have a Labour government in Wales with First Minister Mark Drakeford willing to work with the trade union movement it is vital we legislate to protect workers’ rights and to expand collective bargaining.

“This legislation needs to be laid during this assembly term. As trade unions we do not just want this done for us, but we are actively involved so that the movement has an equal say.”

We were speaking on the day that the Department for Work and Pensions was found guilty of race discrimination and paid out £400,000 to a BAME woman working in its Cardiff office.

Taj thought this might be the tip of an iceberg and that other race discrimination cases will emerge, as in recent years there has been an increase in cases.

“The hateful views we see emerging online on social media are creeping into the workplace as it becomes normalised.”

That brought us to the thorny question of union organising as the WTUC has 400,000 members in unions across Wales out of a working population of around 1.5 million.

Taj worked in call centres and many Cardiff shops when she was younger. This is where her organising background really kicks in as she is clear the movement must be become much more relevant in the everyday lives of working people.

“We have got better with unionising in the gig economy, but in Wales we are definitely behind other areas of the UK in getting into these hard to organise areas.

“We are looking to see how we can help unions with organising and how as a movement we can grow.”

She wants the movement in Wales to be louder and for the time she is in post for people to fall in love with unions and the Wales TUC.

“Organising workers isn’t a walk in the park, it’s difficult, especially where there isn’t a history of union involvement.”

We talk about the worryingly growing age profile of union membership and she explains about the work the WTUC is doing on the climate emergency and targeting campaigns around climate justice.

“That involves us working with young people and we are taking our campaigning to the Green Man festival this year.”

Taj is passionate about the dire impact that the austerity agenda from the coalition government and the Tories since has had on Wales, especially people living in poverty.

“I am deeply worried about the massive impact the floods will have on people who are already suffering poverty, job cuts and many other hardships.

“I am keen that unions continue to use their hardship funds to help support people affected by the flooding and that is another way the movement can be relevant outside of the workplace.”

The Wales TUC is clearly working hard to influence government policy in Wales but Taj is realistic that devolution is not a full defence for the vulnerable as Wales is reliant on funding settlements from Westminster.

“In Wales we have been able to get better union legislation. But with the current Tory government things could get even worse so there is a balancing act between new organising and ensuring that existing workplace membership doesn’t go down.”

What is clear though from our conversation is that Taj has a vision for the future of trade unions that is inclusive and has unions looking more like their membership.