Accord President, Carol Knowles
At the end of our conference in Glasgow, Carol Knowles officially took office as Accord’s new President. As she kicked off her two-year term, we chatted to Carol about her journey to this point, and her vision for the union in the years ahead.
Carol is a Customer Adviser at the Halifax in Bolton. She’s married with two adult children, three dogs, two tortoises and a snake called Cornelius. She began working for the Halifax in 1984, when she was 19. Though she had worked in an off-license through the sixth form, she describes it as her “first proper job.”
Right away, she joined the Halifax Staff Association, as it was then. “I was just told it’s what you did, so I joined,” she says. “I didn’t know what it involved. I didn’t come from a union-based background.”
In 2003, Carol stepped up to become a rep. She was supported by her branch manager, Paul McIver, who saw her potential for the role. “He said to me ‘you’re gobby, Carol, you can be the union rep.’ And the rest is history.”
In the years that followed, Carol became increasingly involved with Accord. Attending reps’ meetings, she was fascinated by the insight that union officials like Ged Nichols and John Dickinson had into the workings of the business. She became a member of the Regional Executive Council and then, in 2006, joined the Principal Executive Council (PEC).
Carol is currently the longest-serving member of the PEC and has been involved through a series of tumultuous events, from the near-collapse of HBOS and the merger with Lloyds, through to the global pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. She’s been a Vice-President of the union since 2016 and stepped up as Acting President between 2019 and 2020.
In these roles, she’s represented Accord in many contexts, including at TUC Congress, TUC Women’s Conference and the 2019 Uni Global International Conference in Spain.
Adapting to change
With all this experience under her belt, Carol is well aware of the challenges that lie ahead.
“I appreciate it’s a big role,” she says. “There’s a lot of changes going on in the banking industry and I want to make sure that the voices of the people I represent can be heard. And part of [the function of the President] is the governance role, it’s making sure the union stays strong through this period. We’re independent and I want us to stay independent, and we’ll work our socks off to make sure that happens.”
Asked about the specific challenges facing Accord members, she quickly identifies the scale of the technological change.
“The digital age is moving very, very quickly upon us. For us to keep pace with your Metros and your other Fintech companies, that’s going to impact every tentacle that goes out into the bank. The branches, the contact centres, the departments in head office – they're all going to be affected by it. Because if we want to stay as a leading bank then we have got to adapt. And I think the job of the union is not to try and prevent those changes, but to make sure they’re done as smoothly and kindly as possible.”
