WARDROBE CRISIS with Clare Press
Oct 21, 2026 · 46 min · 11 segments
Pomp! Circumstance! Policy! Politics! From Margaret Thatcher through ceremonial dressing to holding clothes swaps in Parliament, power dressing can be a complicated business, says this week's guest…
Clare PressHostBecause when there is any situation where there's an imbalance of power anywhere, it's almost impossible for an individual to affect change.
And it can happen, but mostly it requires collective thought, collective action, collective commitment.
And you see that very starkly at the workplace where the power imbalance is just, it's inherent.
It's a really big ask for people to stand up for themselves when their livelihood is at stake.
the safety of other people with you it's not just it might be the right thing to do it might be fair it might be just that you want to fight for a cause but doing it on your own your chances of success are really slim
when you put it like that it seems so obvious in a way just think about it going to your boss and saying i demand this or that or i feel that i've been victimized in this or that way it's obviously intimidating and it's and imagine then if you translate that to a garment factory, whether it's here or on the other side of the world, where you probably have no dialogue with that boss.
And I've seen this in my work across the union movement with different workers.
I've worked with academics and professors find it intimidating and say, I don't want to do it.
And these are people who are equipped with all the tools you would imagine to Then you'd say, okay, well, what about a worker who maybe doesn't speak the language, maybe doesn't have other labour market options? How could it be expected that they would be able to have the tools to effectively counter the arguments and the pressure from a boss?
All right, so broadly what might stand in the way of unionisation? If we can listen to what you just said there and think, well, it makes sense to work together for collective action.
How did we get to this dominant narrative that unions are somehow obsolete? Do you agree with that? I feel like, I don't know.
We certainly know that fewer people across the board, I've got stats from Australia, are joining unions.
the kind of dominant narrative discourse, there's this idea that you're troublemakers,
Because when there is any situation where there's an imbalance of power anywhere, it's almost impossible for an individual to affect change.
And it can happen, but mostly it requires collective thought, collective action, collective commitment.
And you see that very starkly at the workplace where the power imbalance is just, it's inherent.
It's a really big ask for people to stand up for themselves when their livelihood is at stake.
the safety of other people with you it's not just it might be the right thing to do it might be fair it might be just that you want to fight for a cause but doing it on your own your chances of success are really slim
when you put it like that it seems so obvious in a way just think about it going to your boss and saying i demand this or that or i feel that i've been victimized in this or that way it's obviously intimidating and it's and imagine then if you translate that to a garment factory, whether it's here or on the other side of the world, where you probably have no dialogue with that boss.
And I've seen this in my work across the union movement with different workers.
I've worked with academics and professors find it intimidating and say, I don't want to do it.
And these are people who are equipped with all the tools you would imagine to Then you'd say, okay, well, what about a worker who maybe doesn't speak the language, maybe doesn't have other labour market options? How could it be expected that they would be able to have the tools to effectively counter the arguments and the pressure from a boss?
All right, so broadly what might stand in the way of unionisation? If we can listen to what you just said there and think, well, it makes sense to work together for collective action.
How did we get to this dominant narrative that unions are somehow obsolete? Do you agree with that? I feel like, I don't know.
We certainly know that fewer people across the board, I've got stats from Australia, are joining unions.
the kind of dominant narrative discourse, there's this idea that you're troublemakers,
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