Year of Black Workers

We estimate there are over 185,000 Black members in UNISON.

UNISON has worked hard to improve racial equality in the workplace, but racism can be deep rooted and difficult to get rid of. Bullying, harassment, and other unfair treatment, including stereotyping is still going on. All too often, the experience of Black members at work is marked by racism and discrimination.

The experience of Covid also highlighted how deep-seated structural racism impacts on income, on health and at work. During the pandemic, Black people had a higher risk of dying from Covid-19 than white British people of a comparable age. Black workers are more likely to be on the frontline, more likely to be low-paid, over-exposed to risks, offered less protection and were more likely to suffer from the deadly pandemic.

Racial discrimination and unfairness continue to be an every-day experience for Black people at work, and in wider society too.

We are delighted that UNISON has designated 2023 the Year of Black Workers. The Year of Black Workers is an important opportunity to highlight the progress that has been made to date and identify the change that is still needed and put plans in place for practical steps to bring about racial equality.

The mission statement for the Year of Black Workers is: “Establishing Legacy to Generate Change”.  National Black Members Committee wants to ensure a lasting impact for UNISON’s existing work, initiatives and campaigns on race equality and ensure that these are also the basis for positive change at branch, regional and national level, with employers, and in our own union.

UNISON is committed to tackling any discrimination and unfairness in the union and have set up a joint inquiry panel to ensure race cases are being dealt with in line with “UNISON’s ten good reason to use the race discrimination protocol” to help branches effectively deal with race cases.

A lot has been achieved but there is so much still to do. We’ve developed this toolkit to help members and activists identify how they can influence and bring about race equality in the workplace, ranging from small changes in workplace policies and procedures to national level campaigns. No change is too small. We hope you find it useful.

Change can only come if we work together collectively to eradicate it.

 

Yours Kebba Manneh

Chair National Black Members Committee (NBMC)

 

Christina McAnea General Secretary

 

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