Andrea Egan is preparing to attend her first conference as head of the UK's largest union, Unison.
A grassroots activist for over three decades, she defied expectations by ousting incumbent general secretary Christina McAnea in December of last year.
She has indicated that the union had previously been "a sleeping giant" that was overly "subservient" to the Labour leadership.
However, in her debut interview with a national broadcaster, Egan informed me that her members had a clear message for ministers: "I have been very frank with the government. When Labour came into power there was a sense of relief. But sadly we've been left wanting."
She added: "Communities are really struggling. They [Labour] haven't delivered and my election demonstrated that members were desperate to have their voices heard."
She contended that if the government failed to pay greater attention to her members' issues, Labour would face political consequences.
"I have spoken out clearly about the threat Reform brings," she said.
"It isn't us that will hand the keys to No10 to Reform - it's them, unless they change course. And drastically."
So what should the government do differently?
"They've got to start introducing progressive policies. Investment in infrastructure, pay restoration, better services, insourcing. They need to ensure that they deliver on promises they made when they came into government."
While campaigning for the union's top position, Egan described Unison's relationship with Labour as "dysfunctional".
Expanding on that point, she said her members had been "handing money over to the Labour Party and getting absolutely nothing in return".
In 2022, the UK's second-largest union, Unite, chose a high-profile left-wing woman, Sharon Graham, as its leader. She stressed that her focus was on her members, not political games.
Her union still pays a substantial annual membership—or affiliation fee—to Labour of over £1 million a year, but at a conference next year, members will decide whether to sever ties with the party.
So would Egan, who was expelled from Labour for reposting messages from Socialist Appeal, a Marxist group now banned by the party, take a similar approach?
Egan insists that she has always been a Labour member—and it was not her choice to leave.
She tells me that the 1,300 delegates at the conference in Brighton this week will discuss the relationship with the party, but will not debate "disaffiliation"—that is, ending formal and financial links to Labour.
She said the union was "affiliated to Labour at the moment" and it would be up to members in each region of the union to decide if that were to change.
And she rejected Nigel Farage's invitation for unions to affiliate with Reform UK instead.
"It's an interesting tactical move on behalf of Farage," she said.
"But look at Reform's actions in last 12 months, these demonstrate they are not on side of workers.
"If they got into government they'd attack pensions and protections in the workplace."
She said she welcomed the creation of Your Party last year by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana to provide a left-wing alternative to Labour, but the party did not make a significant impact in May's local elections in England.
Egan's assessment is that the disillusionment with Labour is now being expressed in a different way.
"Your Party offered people an opportunity to give Labour a warning that it needed to change. And I feel really sad that that warning is being delivered now by Reform."
She said Labour had made mistakes that alienated it from some of her members who had been looking forward to a new government two years ago: "It's not just about Labour not delivering, they were attacking our movement and our membership."
She was referring to the initial winter fuel cuts and the delay in lifting the two-child benefit cap.
More campaigning
With a Labour leadership contest likely if Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield by-election this week, would the relationship with Labour improve with a change at the top?
She praised Burnham for his work on migrant workers' rights—a cause close to her heart.
She, like Angela Rayner, is concerned about the government's plan to make migrant care workers already in the UK wait up to 15 years for permanent settlement.
She has written to the prime minister, lobbied parliament, and held rallies to push for change.
But Burnham has now said he supports the "broad thrust" of the home secretary's immigration changes.
I asked if that worried her, but she said her message would be the same no matter who led Labour.
"I want this scrapped now," she said.
Under her leadership, she wants her union to engage in more campaigning activity.
She describes herself as a trans ally and said her union is considering legal action following the Supreme Court ruling on biological sex and the subsequent EHRC guidance.
When it comes to industrial relations, Egan said she felt her union had previously been "a bit risk averse to taking action".
She won't be so cautious.
While she stressed that strikes must still be a last resort, at the weekend she told local government workers to prepare for ballots if a 3.3% pay increase is not improved.
She said: "Strike action is our way of saying to employers we won't just accept crumbs from the table.
"We won't accept lower wages, and we won't accept real-terms pay cuts."
She began her career in residential care for the elderly and then for children in Bolton, where she grew up and still lives.
She later became a qualified social worker, and in 2022 she served as the union's president—a one-year position open to lay members.
While campaigning for the union's top job, she said she would take a social worker's salary rather than the general secretary's package, worth around £180,000.
So I asked her—a few times—how much salary she was now drawing.
She wouldn't give me a figure but she did say it was "considerably less" than the rate for the job, and she was donating the surplus to the union's industrial fund (covering strike action) and a charity, adding that her message to members was "when your pay rises, so will mine."
A full list of all the candidates standing in the Makerfield by-election can be found here.
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