Frances became general secretary of the TUC in January 2013, the first woman ever to hold this post.
She joined the TUC as campaigns officer in 1994, and launched the Organising Academy in 1997.
Frances headed up the TUC’s organisation department in 1999, reorganising local skills projects into unionlearn which now helps a quarter of a million workers into learning every year.
As deputy general secretary from 2003, Frances led on the environment, industrial policy, the NHS and winning an agreement covering the 2012 Olympics. She has served as a member of the Low Pay Commission, the High Pay Centre, the Resolution Foundation’s Commission on Living Standards, the Commission on Economic Justice and the government’s National Retraining Partnership.