IN THESE extraordinary times the trade union movement will need to step up like never before in our history. On the eve of TUC 2020 we are facing wholesale attacks on jobs, pay and conditions, and the assaults on public services continue to gather pace.
 
A resurgence in Covid-19 cases means that health and safety in the workplace will continue to be at the forefront of every worker’s mind. At the onset of the pandemic GMB union led the way in ensuring safe systems across workplaces and we hope TUC can join our call for mandatory individual workplace risk assessments.
 
This pandemic has lifted a veil from people’s eyes that we can’t allow to be pulled back. Trade unions have had a surge in new members joining as more working people recognise that trade unions are the only organisations offering guidance and leadership during the biggest national emergency since the second world war.
 
We have seen the true value of our key workers, from supermarkets to care homes, who have kept the entire country running and kept us alive, safe and well. In the absence of a plan from government it’s workers who have had to work out new ways of working, often with very little guidance. Health workers in the hospitals and care workers tended to those who were the most vulnerable, unwell and dying of the virus whilst unprotected themselves.
 
We must not only protect these workers but we must protect and promote the pride, respect and recognition that have returned to these jobs. Conditioned but outdated attitudes towards skill, economic, social and intrinsic value have to be challenged loudly and clearly.
 
Our disingenuous government will publicly advertise that they share all of our concerns while privately and deliberately destabilising our members’ lives and imposing the conditions of service that we see in economically developing countries.
 
There has been chaos and needless deaths as a direct result of years of fragmentation of services due to privatisation and cuts to our public services, but government funding is being diverted to dubious private companies who are failing us on provision of PPE and rolling out test, track and trace.
 
In spite of the glaring failures of privatisation, billions more are being handed over to private companies with close links to government ministers and their advisers while health workers are being told “there are more important calls on public finances” than giving them the pay justice they need and deserve.

Our members want skilled, well paid jobs, they want an end to the injustice of the two-tier workforce and they are angry that they are left to eke out a miserable existence on statutory sick pay if they fall ill. We need investment in a programme to rebuild the economy in the interests of working people.
 
We have to make clear that we are the authority on these issues, the guardians of the truth of these matters, and it is not without our consent that they will be honestly asserted.
 
Many of our workers who died during the pandemic were Black, Asian, or from minority and ethnic backgrounds and we call on the TUC to get behind the demand for a public inquiry into the government’s woeful response to the pandemic.
 
GMB union will be arguing for a more just and equal society at TUC conference and in light of the GMB inquiry this call is more relevant than ever before.
 
The GMB report has shone a light on sexism in our movement and in an era where working women are turning to trade unions for the help and support they cannot get elsewhere, the trade unions must not let them down. We must ensure their voices are heard at every level of our movement.
 
As we fight to end labour market discriminatory practices we will do the difficult work necessary to get our own house in order and we intend to set an example for all organisations and employers to follow.
 
On the eve of TUC Conference and standing at the brink of great change we send our sororal and fraternal greetings to all of our affiliated brothers and sisters and offer all of you our solidarity.

Rehana Azam is national secretary of GMB – head of public services.