Chair: Grace Blakeley
Grace Blakeley is a staff writer at Tribune Magazine and author of several books, including 'Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom' - as well as 'The Corona Crash: How the pandemic will change capitalism' and 'Stolen: How to save the world from financialisation'. She is the former economics commentator for the New Statesman, and a former Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research. She appears frequently in UK and international media, including appearances on BBC Question Time, ITVs Good Morning Britain, Talk TVs Piers Morgan Uncensored and MTV News.
Sara Nelson
Sara Nelson has served as the International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO since 2014, and she is currently serving her third four year term. She first became a union member in 1996 when she was hired as a Flight Attendant at United Airlines and today she represents 50,000 of aviation’s first responders at 19 airlines. Sara has led AFA to some of the most consequential legislative wins in the union’s history, including COVID relief that totalled $54 billion in payroll support to keep aviation workers connected to their jobs, salaries, healthcare, and other benefits for 16 months.
Baker Khundakji
Baker Khundakji has been Young Transport Workers Officer and Future of work lead at International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) since Jan 2019. Based in Amman, Jordan, she has worked for the ITF since 2004. Baker has been part of the trade union movement for more than 15 years. She started in the ITF Arab world regional office and advocated for, and implemented, strategic multi-sectoral initiatives and projects for young transport workers, ensuring that all levels of the ITF leadership are fully engaged and supportive of meaningful activities. Baker led the youth work which resulted in a 74% increase in the ITF declared membership of young workers in the last 5 years. She established the gig economy work programme in the ITF and supported unions’ organising and campaigning efforts pushing for legislative changes, and improved living and working conditions. Baker also Supported the creation of regional bottom-up gig workers networks across Europe, Africa, parts of Asia and most recently Latin America.
Fran Heathcote
Fran Heathcote is General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PSC) representing nearly 200,000 civil servants. Fran started her career at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in 1993, quickly becoming active as a rep and progressing through the ranks of PCS to eventually lead the union. She is the first woman general secretary in the 130-year history of PCS and was previously president of the union.
Patricia Pino
Patricia Pino is a PhD candidate at the IIPP (Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose) at UCL (University College London) and is co-host to The MMT Podcast, which aims to make economics concepts accessible to all. Prior to embarking on a career in economics she also worked as an engineer and has over 15 years of experience in computational fluid dynamics, specialising in the Built Environment and Sustainability.
Danièle Obono
Danièle Obono is a librarian by profession and a graduate in history, modern literature and political science. As a political activist she identifies as an afrofeminist, an alter-globalist, and an ecosocialist among other things. Danièle is the national spokesperson for the party, La France Insoumise. She was responsible for coordinating the programme for L’Avenir en commun during the 2017 French presidential campaign. She was elected as a deputy for the 18th and 19th arrondissements of Paris (17th constituency) and re-elected in the first round in 2024. Danièle is a member of the Legal Commission which deals with constitutional matters, rights, freedoms, justice, security, and local governance.