The Year of Black Workers

THIS IS an important year for Black workers across the United Kingdom. There are many anniversaries and key milestones to mark in 2023. We are celebrating 75 years since the arrival of the Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks on 22 June 1948.

With great pride, we celebrate the Windrush Generation who demonstrated dignity, fortitude, and resilience in the face of outlandish and overt daily racism.

And one of the UK’s greatest achievements – we celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the creation of the National Health Service on 5th July 2023 which Black workers were invited to come to build.

Legacy

We place on record our huge thanks to all the NHS workers from all Continents of the world and give our gratitude for their remarkable service, keeping the public safe over the years, and for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our continuing legacy will be to ensure that you get the fair pay, pensions and terms and conditions you deserve and that it keeps pace with inflation.

This year we are commemorating the 30th anniversary of Stephen Lawrence’s death and honouring his life and legacy.

It is also an important milestone year for UNISON - celebrating 30 years since its creation on 1 July 2023 from the merger of three trade unions – COHSE, NALGO and NUPE.

Black workers played formidable roles in those three trade unions among others.

But it was through the principle of Black Self-Organisation that Black workers were able to build a formidable presence in those unions and to begin to change the agenda, the structure, and the culture of those trade unions and in the wider Trades Union Congress.

It is through mobilising and organising in their unions that Black workers were able to begin to break the cycle of discrimination, disadvantage and deprivation that were prevalent in their communities.

More importantly, Black workers also recognised that they had to break down the barriers to participation and representation in the decision-making structures of trade unions to change not just trade union policies, but also the practices and consolidate their rights to representation in the rules of those organisations.

There was a similar process to ensure that Black members’ voices were heard in politics and that they were represented in the decision-making structures of politics.

RE-BUILDING

A key part of this meaningful action was to make Black votes count and for the collective voice and votes of Black communities to make a difference.

Black workers are playing key roles in these anniversary events.

The Year of the Black Workers is an important milestone in recognising their contributions in re-building the British public services infrastructure over that last 75 years and the UK economy. Moreover, the contribution of Black Workers boosting the wealth and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the UK and those private individuals and institutions that have enriched themselves from the labour and toil of enslaved Black people to today’s generation of exploited Black Workers.

Pay Gap

Our priority is to secure a new deal for Black workers and a new social contract that will end the scourge of poverty; the racial penalty of being paid less because of the ethnicity pay gap; ending the potency of racial segregation in the labour market that consign the majority of Black workers to an inferior employment status based on precarious work; Zero Hour Contracts and short time hours that deny them full employee status with contractual rights, pay and pensions.

We must expose these racial inequalities and injustices that manifest in the disparities and disproportionalities of racial disadvantages that scars the lives of so many in our society.

From recruitment to redundancies, Black workers lived experiences are the same – last in, first out.

Everyone of us need to become agents of change and build on the legacies of the past; create new legacies in the present, and be bold to demand and develop fairer and stronger legacies for the future.

Stephen Lawrence Report and the Stephen Lawrence Day UNISON is proud to continue to play its part in taking meaningful actions in supporting the Stephen Lawrence Day on 22 April.

This National Day must remain a beacon of hope for future generations and a continuing reminder of the scale of the problem in challenging racism in the United Kingdom and beyond.

UNISON was the only trade union to give evidence to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry led by Sir William MacPherson, calling for justice for Stephen and for action to be taken to tackle the scourge of Institutional Racism in society.

In addition, UNISON ensured that the Trades Union Congress (TUC) established the Stephen Lawrence Task Force to oversee the work of trade unions to tackle institutional racism and implemented a comprehensive UNISON action plan led by Gloria Mills, UNISON Director of Equalities.

The action plan resulted in what was at the time, ground-breaking policies and legal changes – most notably the passing of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, which placed a new enforceable general duty on public authorities to promote race relations.

The UNISON report titled “Facing the Challenges: The Impact of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report on Practices in the Public Sector” and Gloria Mills’ article on “Combating Institutional Racism in the Public Sector” published on 1 March 2002 in Industrial Law Journal, together with the Stephen Lawrence Report were landmark reports on the failures by public institutions to face up to the challenges of institutional racism; tackle the disproportionate levels of discrimination, disciplinaries and dismissals Black workers experience in the world of work and failings within policing.

Leadership, Actions and Accountability

As we continue in our fight for racial equality and justice – it is important that leaders of our public institutions act with integrity and lead by example in creating new legacies for future generations to follow.

There is a major call out for leaders in our institutions to demonstrate clear vision and standards that are exemplary in politics and public life.

Leaders will be judged by their actions and how they account for them in the private and public spheres. In changing our institutions, strong leadership is essential to eliminate the corrosive and toxic cultures that are embedded in private and public organisations.

Actions matter. Accountability matters. Let us begin to write the next chapter in building a fairer, more equal Britain and establishing new legacies by holding those in leadership accountable for their failure to act when they have the power and responsibility to do so.

Gloria Mills is National Secretary Equalities - UNISON; and Chair - TUC Race Relations Committee.