About TUC Anti-Racism Taskforce
In 2020 the TUC launched an Anti-Racism Taskforce to tackle the structural racism with the labour market and wider society. The Taskforce is in operation for two years.
The Taskforce will lead the trade union movement’s renewed campaign against racism at work. It will engage with Black workers across the UK to hear about their experiences. And it will produce recommendations on tackling structural racism in the UK, in workplaces and in unions themselves.
The Taskforce, led by NASUWT General Secretary Dr Patrick Roach, will then develop an action plan for change across UK workplaces – and within unions themselves.
It is our aim to use our trade union leverage to press for change across UK workplaces and to lead by example by demonstrating our capacity as a movement to secure racial justice at work.
The Anti-Racism Taskforce in 2022
The Taskforce now in its second year and is made up of senior leaders from the trade union movement and expert representatives from civil society and academia.
The first year (2020-2021) of the Taskforce has concentrated on the establishment of ways of working for members of the taskforce. This year has also seen a comprehensive programme of research and evidence gathering efforts take place, evidencing the scale and impact of institutional and systemic race inequalities across the UK labour market and society more widely.
The second-year (2021-2022) is focused on the implementation of concrete actions the Taskforce must achieve. The Taskforce, as leaders of the trade union movement, will step up, alongside the wider anti-racist movement, and deliver tangible actions that will make a positive difference for Black workers.
Workstreams
The Taskforce is organised by four working groups: Collective Bargaining; Organising; Public Policy and Unions as Employers.
The workstreams aim to be action-oriented and must demonstrate making a change over the ARTF two-year life. They must engage with a wide range of groups, including Black Workers self-organised groups in unions and allies in the voluntary sector.
The workstreams must be engaged with the devolved nations, as well as take account of the intersectional experience of Black workers. Each workstream will identify, progress and deliver on the key issues identified.
Workstreams GoalsCollective bargaining – putting race on the agenda will be our priority. We will be working to bring unions and employers together to work for change that will make workplaces safer, inclusive and fairer. We will be harnessing and building on the tools and strategies that our unions have already demonstrated are most effective in winning progress on racial justice in the workplace. Organising – diversity is our strength and we will be working to renew our unions, building and strengthening the cadre of Black union leaders and activists through a new TUC-led programme to train 1,000 Black activists, working together with our affiliates across sectors and regions. Public policy – we will be calling out the government on its commitment to racial justice. Building on our movement’s call for an independent public inquiry into the government handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, we will also be giving voice to the experiences of Black workers during the pandemic, and demanding that lessons are learned. And we will be putting forward an agenda that will deliver protections for Black workers, including calling for stronger regulation, mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting and legislation to ban the use of zero-hours contracts. Unions as employers – we are inviting all of our unions to not only talk the talk but also to demonstrate our capacity to lead by example, putting racial justice front and centre of our work as trade union employers. The Taskforce will be supporting unions to drive the change to build inclusive and safe working environments for trade union employees. |
Taskforce members
Chair: Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary, NASUWT
Patron: Neville Lawrence
Members:
- Dave Ward, General Secretary, CWU
- Davena Rankin, TUC Race Relations Committee
- Debbie Weekes-Bernard, London’s Deputy Mayor, London Assembly
- Frances O’Grady, General Secretary, TUC
- Gary Younge, Journalist
- Gloria Mills, TUC Race Relations Committee Chair
- Halima Begum, Director, Runnymede Trust
- Ian Lawrence, General Secretary, NAPO
- Mark Serwotka, General Secretary, PCS
- Mary Bousted, General Secretary, NEU
- Michelle Codrington-Rogers, TUC Race Relations Committee
- Mike Clancy, General Secretary, Prospect
- Paddy Lillis, General Secretary, Usdaw
- Rehana Azam, National Secretary, GMB
- Steve Turner, Assistant General Secretary, Unite
- Susan Matthews TUC Race Relations Committee
- Yvette Williams, Justice4Grenfell
