Unison leader announces major campaign challenging government’s record on public sector pay

Exclusive: Christina McAnea criticises Labour, calling for ‘strong opposition’, and says Westminster has ‘abandoned’ workers, reports James Moore

Ms McAnea says she feels public sector workers are ‘exhausted’ (Unison)

Unison general secretary Christina McAnea has urged Labour to up its game on workers’ rights as she prepares to launch a major campaign targeting the government’s record on public sector pay.

Ms McAnea, who this year became the first female boss of the UK’s biggest union, said she believed no party was taking the issue sufficiently seriously in the wake of TUC figures showing one in four workers have seen their terms and conditions reduced during the pandemic, which has seen a parallel epidemic of fire-and-rehire tactics alongside the continuing blight of zero-hours contracts.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Ms McAnea said she felt workers had been “abandoned” by Westminster, and urged the opposition to exploit what she termed a “wedge” issue.

“Now is the time for a new discussion on the subject of workers’ rights. Let’s think seriously about how we make things better. People don’t want to go back to the way things were before the pandemic; there’s no appetite for that,” she said.

Ms McAnea’s union was the first to nominate Sir Keir Starmer as Labour leader, thus playing a significant role in his ascent.

But with the government having promised a new employment bill in the Queen’s Speech, disquiet has been growing in the Labour movement over the party’s failure to get a strong message across.

Critics include members who are normally supportive of Sir Keir – something that makes Ms McAnea’s words particularly significant.

On the subject of Sir Keir’s leadership, Ms McAnea nonetheless said: “I think he’s doing well. He took over after the worst defeat since 1935. He took over when Labour had been found to have breached EHRC legislation in terms of anti-racism, with the party facing massive challenges.

“The focus has obviously had to be on getting the country through the pandemic rather than constantly fighting the government, and that must have been difficult.”

But she added: “We now need a really strong opposition that will hold the government to account. We have one of the worst Covid death rates per head in the world. Patients with the virus have been discharged to care homes, and there is the terrible scandal around the £37bn spent on test and trace.

“Of course the government has received a bounce in terms of what’s happened with the vaccine.

“But whats the lesson from that? It’s been delivered by the NHS. I go to AGMs, and I say, ‘How’re things going?’ and they say ‘We have ten of our stewards here who’ve volunteered to vaccinate people’ – but then you look at how they’re being treated, how they’re not being paid for the work they’ve put in through this, and it’s appalling.”

Ms McAnea said that the aim of her campaign was to “speak up for the public sector and public-sector workers”.

“They are entitled to a decent pay increase and investment in their future. This is about trying to put a stake in the ground, about us saying, ‘Don't forget what public-sector workers went through and what they did,’ as we come out of the pandemic.

“It’s all too easy for government ministers to forget and to move other things. We’re saying to people, with the elections coming – whether it’s mayoral, or local council elections: when you go to the ballot box, think about what are the policies of the different parties on public service and public-sector workers.

“Who’s talking about it – who’s talking about the NHS, local government, police services, education?”

Ms McAnea said she felt public-sector workers were “exhausted”.

“And there is a nervousness about what’s to come, about the winter. People who work in those sectors – in health, in social care – they are worried about the different variants. They want a break. There’s a desperate need for change.”