Big Issue North magazine, 27 April - 3 May 2020
Trade unions have done much to bring about protection for workers during the pandemic, sometimes in co-operation with employers. Mark Metcalf assesses workplace conditions and asks whether this heralds a new era for labour relations
“We worked fast and hard when the penny finally dropped for the government that it needed to work with the unions.”
Trade unions have found it difficult on many building sites to get employers to close down and pay furlough
The government’s radical action to pay employers to furlough staff at the start of the coronavirus epidemic shocked many observers. The sight of Conservative ministers effectively nationalising large swathes of the economy showed the scale of threat to the economy. Less noticed was the role of trade unions in bringing about this protection for workers.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC), made up of unions representing around 6.5 million workers – about 25 per cent of the UK workforce – has also sought safety equipment for vulnerable workers and the adoption of distancing among staff to restrict the spread of the deadly virus. In some cases unions have agreed deals with companies that mean employees receive full salaries, not just the 80 per cent underwritten by the government.
Co-operation with employers has been such that the CBI, Britain’s biggest business lobby group, believes the pandemic shows how business and trade unions “can find common ground in the interests of employers and workers”, according to its policy director Matthew Fell. “We both fed ideas to the government on ways to support workers and businesses.”
Schools were the first public body closed by Boris Johnson. “The National Education Union (NEU) was campaigning for action as we knew schools were key circulation points for the virus,” says an NEU rep who wished to remain anonymous. “The NEU has members who are cleaners and we have sought PPE for them. Vulnerable staff with underlying medical conditions and those with elderly parents have not been asked to come to schools that are open for the teaching of children of key workers.”
At shop floor level, elected workplace reps have looked to find common ground with bosses. But where this has proven impossible there have been tensions. Unite general secretary Len McCluskey has promised to lodge unfair dismissal claims in support of members if employers have chosen not to use the furlough scheme but instead to lay them off.
“We worked fast and hard when the penny finally dropped for the government that it needed to work with the unions, to get the Treasury to turn away from business loans and into job retention scheme routes, as well as measures for the self-employed,” he says. “We worked with the TUC on an alternative mechanism to pay wages, not stack up company debt.”
According to Daren Ireland, North West organiser for the rail union RMT, agreed government policies have been interpreted very differently by companies. “Good employers immediately furloughed their staff,” he says. “We were very concerned at the attitudes of the SSP group that runs outlets such as Burger King and pasty shops on railways. Through national discussions we managed to get them furloughed.”
Experienced paramedic Debbie Wilkinson is a Unite rep at the Yorkshire Ambulance Service. “We have a Unite national ambulance teleconference regularly to share best practice and ensure our PPE is effective,” she says. “Training ensures it is fitted properly.
“I have members asking me about childcare. I raise these with management, with whom we generally have a good relationship.”
Wilkinson says that locally the NHS has agreed to pay staff usually employed on zero hours contracts.
Other union reps also speak positively about a closer working relationship with management. At First Bus in Middlesbrough the usual annual pay battle was not needed when management offered an above inflation rise of 3 per cent that was quickly accepted. Eighty drivers have been furloughed. Those still working have their cabins sealed off from passengers.
“We are all on the same page. The virus is a very scary thing. No one really knows what is going to happen,” says Tan Abdul Rashid, a Unite equality rep.
Relationships are though not always so harmonious. Trade unions have found it difficult on many building sites to get employers to close down and pay furlough. Dave Smith, who as a blacklisted construction worker heads the Blacklist Support Group, has urged building workers to strike “at greedy employers by walking off sites”.
The majority, many of whom are self-employed and not covered until government support for them starts in June, have ignored the plea, needing their wages to pay their bills. Meanwhile, the GMB has 2,000 members from around 4,500 employees at the Asos distribution centre outside Grimethorpe but union pleas for it to close have been ignored. Staff who go on the sick would get £95.85 in weekly statutory sick pay.
Looking to the future, Ireland said there had been fears that once the pandemic has passed, many workers on the railways and buses might find themselves unemployed so he welcomed the renationalisation of the railways that took place without any fanfare in March. “We need state control of rail and buses to ensure good, well paid and secure jobs,” he says.
Many teachers, however, are not looking that far ahead, according to the NEU rep. He pays tribute to teachers who have died as a result of coronavirus and says: “The NEU is not convinced that schools should be reopened at this time.” Thousands of NHS staff have agreed by signing an open letter saying they should remain closed until widespread testing exists for Covid-19 along with “rigorous contact tracing and scrupulous adherence to quarantining”.
In addition to their workplace activities, trade unions have been able to provide welfare and mental health support for members and their families stuck at home. In some regions, members have done the shopping for those who can’t go outside.
It is this aspect that has caught the attention of labour movement academic Seth Wheeler, who is active in the Cleaners and Allied Independent Workers Union, which organises migrant workers. “Unions originated before the welfare state. Early unions fought for better pay and greater safety but also organised workers, plus their families, laid off at work. Can unions ensure the state continues to provide funds for basic services but that they are coordinated by them to create a revitalised union form of life?”
If that sounds ambitious, so too is McCluskey. “I am hoping it might be time to reset our economy, reset our society and how we approach work.”
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