‘ Now is the time to mobilise and organise for racial justice at work ’

Chaired by Kebba Manneh (pictured) and hosted by the national Black members’ committee (NMBC), the first day of UNISON’s virtual Black members’ conference began this morning. Day one featured a range of guest speakers, including UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea, TUC head of equalities and strategy Kudsia Batool, the union’s Nelson Mandela award winner, Kemoy Walker, and NEC president Paul Holmes. Institutional racism, amplified by the pandemic, was a strong theme of the day. Black people were four times more likely to die of COVID-19 than white people, but as one conference speaker said: “They weren’t dying due to genetics, but due to a racist society.” Ms McAnea said: “Black workers were more likely to get ill and sadly die during this pandemic, yet they still kept going, still did their job and held people’s hands.” Conference stated that these disproportionate deaths of Black workers by COVID-19 were driven by institutional racism in the workplace, which has resulted in Black workers more often being in low-paid and precarious work, more likely to be in frontline job roles and not reflected in management structures.  Recognising that proper sick pay can be a matter of life and death, as well as evidence that suggests both ethnicity and income inequality are associated with COVID-19 illness, two motions were passed in relation to sickness policies. One motion was also passed on Black disabled workers and home working policies, calling on th...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tags: Article News 2022 Black Members Conference Source Type: news