Finally, we have the data to prove what anti-racist campaigners have been saying for months

Racism is ingrained in British society and the labour market – Covid-19 has again thrown this into stark relief

This week official figures showed what anti-racist campaigners have been saying for months: that Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups have suffered a triple whammy during the Covid-19 pandemic. Bame people are overwhelmingly more likely to have worse mental health, to have less financial security, and to be put at more risk of catching the virus.  

Some may say this is just the plight of low income working people in general. But Bame communities are at least twice as likely to die from the virus. That’s because workers from Bame backgrounds are concentrated in jobs with the highest infection rates, more likely to work on the frontline, and more likely to be put at greater risk. Bame workers are far more likely to be working in insecure work, which traps them in poverty. Jobs on zero hours contracts, agency work – all forms of employment that offer families precious little security.  

This isn’t an accident. Racism isn’t only purposeful discrimination by individuals, it is ingrained in the rules of the UK’s society and labour market. Our system enables the racism of greater poverty and unequal outcomes to flourish. And the pandemic has once again thrown this into stark relief.    

Too often people oppose racism but recoil from corrective action thinking it will distract from fighting other injustices. We reject this idea of a choice. Unions seek a rising tide to lift all boats – but we must also mend the holes caused by racism in the boats carrying Black workers.

So as we strive for justice for all working people, trade unions must also seek to end the systematic disadvantage that hits BAME workers. Because that is the only way to win for today’s diverse working class.  

It is the same system that exploits warehouse workers in less diverse areas of Britain still proud of their industrial traditions, as it does delivery drivers racing against impossible targets in our increasingly diverse towns and cities.  

Unions stand for an end to poverty pay for all, and an end to insecure work – knowing that will help everyone on a low income, but disproportionately Black workers. The government should get on with their long-promised employment bill, and ban zero hours contracts in 2021.  

But we also need targeted action on racial disparities.  

Last week Lloyds Bank revealed that their Bame staff are paid 20 per cent less. To their credit, they voluntarily published the figures, and put in place a plan to deal with the gaps. But voluntary action on racial disparities in companies and institutions will never be enough – ministers must drive public policy, starting with the publication of ethnicity pay gaps.  

Over the coming two years, the TUC’s anti-racism taskforce will mobilise Britain’s 5.5 million union members against racism at work. Because we know that in order to understand class in Britain in 2021 we need to understand race, and vice versa. We will raise concerns about why Bame people are much more likely to be in insecure work – and at the same time we will question why precarious work is so widespread in the first place.

There is nothing normal about poverty – nor about inequality. It must be challenged until it is changed.

Lester Holloway is an anti-racism policy officer for the TUC