For nearly two years, Sky News has been investigating allegations of bullying and harassment inside one of the UK’s biggest trade unions.
We’ve been listening to women with accounts of alleged bullying, misogyny, cronyism, and sexism, which they claim is rife within the GMB Union.
So I went to find the head of the group to ask him why some women at his union still feel like they are treated unfairly.
How we tracked him down
Through a dimly lit car park in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon, I’m chasing the head of the GMB union through the car bays in an attempt to ask him some very serious questions.
He seems annoyed by this scrutiny. He had left the TUC conference early through a side door in an apparent attempt to avoid me and had started running away from me as I approached him.
But there are serious questions hanging over him over how he runs his unions and how that union treats the women who work for him, so I continue to follow him.
GMB has always denied there is a culture of bullying, misogyny and sexism, in fact, much more staunchly than any other organisation I’ve covered before accused of the same thing, and today was no different.
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Mr Smith told me there was “no problem at all” within the union, unwilling to admit there was any real work to do and essentially saying – there’s nothing to see here.
The problem is that lots of women have expressed concerns and say they feel harassed at the union enough that the equalities watchdog is currently examining whether GMB is complying with the human rights act, and previously GMB members have threatened to strike against their own union over allegations of sexism – a highly unusual move used only when members want to raise a serious issue.
I ask Mr Smith whether he takes this seriously.
He says: “We’re a good organisation, we’re a…
