Sean was a well-known and respected both within the Trade Union movement and the Disability movement
The former Assistant General Secretary of Unite, Diana Holland said that when she first met Sean he was a Transport & General Workers Union (TGWU) workplace representative at Remploy in the mid-1990s.
“Sean became frustrated with what he felt was the slow progress by the union in adopting policies and practices that would enable disabled people to play a fuller part in TGWU”
At the 1993 biennial TGWU Conference a motion was passed that led to the setting up of the disability forum. Whilst the Disability Forum did not have any status or power it did bring together disabled activists and encouraged them to work together and organise themselves to ensure that the rights of disabled workers were strengthened both within TGWU and across society.
In 1995 the Disability Discrimination Act became law. This was the result of years of campaigning by the disability movement as well as by a number of MPs including Jack Ashley and Alf Morris.
At that time Sean was involved in the ‘Rights Now’ campaign which was supported by the TGWU. Sean was also involved in setting and up and building the Trade Union Disability Alliance.
When the Amicus and TGWU trade unions merged the new union – Unite – set up the National Disabled Members Committee (NDMC). In November 2009 Sean was elected as Chair of the NDMC which he remained until his untimely death in 2020. During this time Sean also served as the first directly elected disabled members’ representative on the Unite Executive Council.
The first Unite National Disabled Members Conference took place in 2010 and was chaired by Sean. The Conference focussed on 4 key priorities:
Representing Disabled Members at the Workplace
Health & Safety and Disabled Workers
Campaigning for Disability Equality
Disability Access
You will not be surprised to learn that these remain the priorities of the NDMC. This does not mean that there has not been any progress made within Unite, but that insufficient progress has been made. This is equally true of the TUC and many other trade unions.
Sean served as the Unite representative on the TUC Disabled Workers Committee where has was elected as the Chair. He also represented Unite on the TUC’s General Council.
Earlier we mentioned that Sean first met Diana Holland when he was a workplace representative at one of the Remploy factories. It will be no surprise to you that Sean was central to the campaign in 2011 and 2012 to save the Government run Remploy factories from closure.
Sean spoke from the stage at the TUC’s march and rally in Hyde Park in March 2011, in front of hundreds of thousands of anti-cuts campaigners, where he attacked the coalition government’s cuts to disability benefits, care and support, and employment support, and the Remploy closures
In 2011 the government had announced that they were going to close the Remploy factories which they said were loss making and they argued that the money could be better spent on ending segregated employment and helping individuals find jobs elsewhere alongside able bodied workers.
You will not be surprised to learn that despite these claims by the Government in 2011 that the barriers faced by disabled people wishing to work have not disappeared, in fact, they have probably got worse.
Unite fully supported Sean and his colleagues at Remploy in their campaign to keep the factories open.
Like Sean, Unite believe that disabled people need a range of measures to support them to find work and keep those jobs including:
Strengthened anti-discrimination laws
A quota system to ensure that more disabled people were employed and supported to work alongside able-bodied workers.
Unite, and indeed all trade unions, want disabled people to be employed everywhere but unfortunately that time is still some way off.
Both Unite and GMB backed their members at Remploy who unanimously wanted to keep the factories open.
The trade unions proposed that the factories needed an alternative business plan. They argued that closing the factories would result in many vulnerable people being permanently unemployed, and unfortunately, this is exactly what happened.
Sean was a very strong and effective voice for the Remploy workers. At the same time he was also a strong advocate for integrated employment where disabled workers were employed alongside able-bodied workers.
Unfortunately the Government did close the Remploy factories and as a result Sean went on to work for the Disability Advice Service in Lambeth where he was a professionally trained advice worker who supported other disabled people to claim direct payments. It is no surprise that Sean campaigned on benefit issues and managed to persuade Unite to take the lead in these campaigns.
To quote Siobhan Endean, the then Unite National Equalities Officer,
“Sean’s campaigning agenda was born of personal experience and a recognition of the structural discrimination that disabled people face every day. His focus was very much on the fight for dignity and justice for disabled people whether it was the fight against hate crime; the detested work capability assessment; the fight for independent living for disabled people and the need for a social security system fit for purpose; or the need to deliver access to work for disabled people. Sean was a tireless campaigner. He was dedicated to providing a collective voice to address the cumulative impact of austerity on disabled people from 2010 onwards.”
A lot more could written about Sean, and if you want to read more about him, then please follow this link to download a copy of the booklet ‘Remembering Sean McGovern Trade Union Champion for Disabled People written and compiled by Mark Metcalf chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://markwrite.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/sean-mcgovern-booklet-final-print-june-2022.pdf
I wish to acknowledge that I have drawn heavily on this publication when writing this article.
I would like to conclude with a few quotes from his friends and peers:
“I am privileged to have known and worked with Sean for many years. He was a committed trade unionist, a great comrade and a thoroughly decent man. A passionate, principled champion of disabled people at work and in society, Sean had a huge impact within the trade union movement and far beyond. For almost a decade, Sean led the TUC general council’s work on disability with dignity and determination. And he did so at a profoundly difficult time for disabled people, as cruel Tory austerity policies hit jobs, services and lifelines hard. Throughout, Sean went the extra mile to give disabled workers a strong collective voice, always seeking to defend and advance disabled workers’ and working people’s rights.” Frances O’Grady, General Secretary of the TUC
“People viewed him as a leader, and he could articulate people’s frustration, anger, and aspirations. He was intelligent, approachable, passionate, and caring. One of his greatest strengths was his resilience and the unquenchable fire in his belly against injustice.” Jim Kelly, Chair of Unite London & Eastern region
Mark Harrison, who worked with him through DPAC (Disabled People Against the Cuts) and the wider ROFA (Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance) network, described him as a “principled and tenacious fighter for disability rights”.
He said: “Sean was a natty and stylish dresser with a great taste in music and sense of humour.
“His contribution to forwarding our rights is immeasurable. He was liked and respected by everyone who knew him in the disability, labour and trade union movement and will be sorely missed.”
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