Category: Andrea Egan

‘Activists are the lifeblood of our union,’ says Andrea Egan

Today, UNISON president Andrea Egan opened the union’s 2023 national delegate conference in Liverpool with a speech to members.

Referencing her roots as a Bolton woman, she said “I’m very proud to offer you a warm welcome here to the North West, the biggest of our union’s regions.

“Having been active in my branch for over 30 years, I’ve always been grateful to UNISON for the platform it has given me to fight for our members and within our community.”

Ms Egan also expressed her pride at leading the union through a “critical” year for members, which has seen workers across the union take industrial action for decent wages.

Justice and equality

The president underlined the importance of challenging racism and discrimination in every form across the union, noting: “We’re defending our trans siblings, fighting for dignity for disabled people, and fighting for women’s rights in a world where misogyny and violence towards women remains alarmingly widespread”.

Ms Egan also celebrated the fact that 2023 is the Year of Black Workers, and that the national Black members’ committee has developed a comprehensive work programme for branches, regions and service groups to engage with.

“We’re a movement and we cannot stand by while any of our members continue to face the injustice of racism or any inequality at work or in our communities.”

International solidarity

Ms Egan expressed international solidarity with workers in Cuba and Türkiye, specifically the union’s friends Mehmet Bozgeyik and Osman Isci from KESK, the confederation of public employees’ trade union. 

“It’s so important we continue to stand in solidarity with all our intentional comrades around the world.” 

Cost of living

On the crippling cost of living crisis in the UK, the president said: “The Tories are on a renewed war path and we’re going to need every ounce of our energy, commitment and resolve for the year ahead”.

And describing how union members have “suffered for 13 years at the end of this Tory austerity project, being fed the Tory lie that there’s no money”, she paid tribute to the resilience of members in fighting for decent pay.

“I’ve been proud to stand with so many of you on your picket lines, standing shoulder to shoulder with many of you in your struggles.

“We had successful strike action in health, and we’ve got the current ballot for a ‘yes’ to industrial action in local government. As each industrial action takes place, we are learning lessons and taking them on to the next ballot.

“Activists are the lifeblood of our union and I’m proud of what you achieve for our members. It’s important to build member power and show support for our comrade unions who are also taking action.

“Of course, conference, this government are not content with holding down pay. They also want to punish working people for wanting to fight back with the anti-strike bill.”

Ms Egan was met with a round of applause when she said “the government suddenly care about staffing levels on strike days, but we know members want to see minimum level standards on all working days”.

She concluded her speech by reminding delegates of her Presidential charity, Endeavour, which offers a wide range of services in Bolton, including frontline community support for domestic abuse survivors.

The article ‘Activists are the lifeblood of our union,’ says Andrea Egan first appeared on the UNISON National site.

‘We must be united for battles ahead,’ says UNISON president

Addressing delegates at UNISON’s national disabled members’ conference in Brighton this morning, the union’s president, Andrea Egan (pictured above), told them: “We face unprecedented times – and we must emerge united for the real battles that lie ahead”.

Congratulating delegates on their work in the Year of Disabled Workers, she noted that activists had trained 100 new disabled officers for the union, which she called “a fantastic achievement.”

And that was not all: “Your work on the Disability Employment Charter has been inspirational”, said Ms Egan, “and an inspiration for the union’s forthcoming Year of Black Workers.”

Unity was a thread that ran throughout her speech.

“We must be united,” she noted, as the Conservative government plans yet another period of austerity. “The Tories will do what they do best – cuts, cuts and more cuts”.

Hospitals are worried about paying for energy, schools wondering if they can keep the lights on, while the response to the cost-of-living crisis from this “government for the 1%” is “ineffective at best and deplorably negligent at worst”.

The president spoke of the EU Retained Law Bill – a “bonfire of employment rights [that] seeks to deregulate employment rights” – and outlined some of the rights that could be lost.

“UNISON is fighting this government on this bill, as we are on other grounds,” she said, and reiterated: “When we work together, we’re stronger.”

Citing UNISON victories – and not least the recent win for staff in Lancashire and Cumbria working for the NHS but employed by OCS – she observed that the whole union, from general secretary Christina McAnea to staff and activists, is working to create ways to take on employers.

“Poverty is a choice of the powerful,” she said. “As a union, we must be on the side of the worker who is unable to pay their bills.”

UNISON disabled members conference – platform seen from the left, with signer in sight

In the final debates of this year’s conference, Christine Jackson from the Northern region moved a motion on the importance of public transport for disabled people.

However, there is a considerable way to go. As an example, she cited the Tyne and Wear Metro, which has 60 stations, but only 10 of them have Access for All.

Access for All provides an obstacle free, accessible route from the station entrance to the platform.

Another delegate noted the discrimination against disabled people on planes, together with the general lack of support on public transport. “The only way I can travel is with my support”, she said.

Conference also supported a motion from the Black members’ caucus, which highlighted the impact of long COVID on Black members, who were finding it particularly difficult to get Personal Independence Payment (PIP) payments – even though the courts have judged long COVID to be a disability.

Rose Gale from Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust, said: “My employers are penalising people with long COVID, which is not universally recognised. Following the usual triggers [on sickness levels] is not appropriate”.

Delegates backed a motion calling for implementation of the BSL (British Sign Language) Act, with Howard Beck telling conference: “British Sign Language was recognised as a language 19 years ago. More work needs to be done. Interpreters go through roughly seven years of training. It’s a significant amount of time and commitment”.

He explained that there are many spoken language agencies popping up and claiming to be able to teach BSL – profiteering from it without knowing about it or the culture around it – and having a negative impact on provision for Deaf users.

Supporting the motion, Katrina Gilman said that her job included hiring sign language interpreters “and it’s very difficult. We need to hold our employers accountable to make sure BSL users have access to services”.

Delegates also backed motions on women’s health, breaking down barriers to employment and trans ally training.

The article ‘We must be united for battles ahead,’ says UNISON president first appeared on the UNISON National site.

‘A struggle is a struggle. That’s why we’ve got to stick together’

UNISON president Andrea Egan says she’s given her life to the trade union movement. A committed UNISON and local government activist of over three decades in Bolton, she “couldn’t be prouder” to be from the North West,

Describing how the union has given her the resources and space to help make a difference, she noted: “As a working-class woman, it’s allowed me to really fulfil that deep sense of how unfair and unequal society is, and has allowed me a platform to do that work and given me a structure to influence change.”

Ms Egan’s organising track record is strong: leading UNISON’s first industrial action against academisation of two Bolton secondary schools in 2008; organising to stop the closure of local childrens’ centres; pushing for trans policies in her local council and fighting tirelessly for disability inclusion.

It’s unsurprising that she believes that collective organising is where UNISON is most powerful.

“We’re an organising union. When you’re organised and winning, it attracts people to join the union, as opposed to just servicing.”

Servicing, she explains, is the ‘insurance policy’ feature of unions, that promises protection in case of any workplace issues. For Ms Egan, although this “can’t be the main focus of who we are”, the two features of the union aren’t mutually exclusive.

“In my branch, if somebody rings and there’s a disciplinary or a grievance, we consider: ‘Can that be a collective grievance?’ If it’s an issue of wages or bullying, we consider: ‘Who else in that workplace is suffering from that same issue?’

“We try to collectivise the issues. We’ve supported campaigns when employers want to target or have failed one member, and other workers have stepped forward. We have organised those workers to stand together to take action.”

Referencing successful UNISON campaigns in the region from rehabilitation workers in Wigan to winning the living wage for commissioned care workers across Greater Manchester, Ms Egan said “we can see the model of organising in all of those wins.”

Given that UNISON members work within public services, Ms Egan recognises the union holds a unique position in its capacity to engage the public and local communities.

“I’ve led some fantastic campaigns, which were only fantastic through the engagement of the community. We often forget that.

“During the academy campaign, I would attend branch committee and remind our stewards: ‘Don’t forget, this isn’t just about the children’s section fighting the academy programme. It’s about you – grandparents, parents, aunties and uncles who have kids in those schools. You’ve all got a part to play’.”

Equalities

As newly-appointed president of UNISON’s national executive council, Ms Egan is keen to lend her power to amplify issues of equality. She said: “I use every power and opportunity I’ve got, and I won’t leave any equality group behind. We’ve got to do whatever we can where people are disadvantaged, or there’s a potential for them to be treated differently and unequally in the workplace.”

Ms Egan is a proud trans ally and recently celebrated the launch of UNISON’s new trans equality campaign: “Being president of the largest union in the UK gives me a platform to be able to advocate and be a trans ally. I’ve always been an ally.

“I might be a white, heterosexual, able-bodied female, but that doesn’t mean I cannot understand what [trans people] are going through. As a white working-class woman, brought up by a single mum on a housing estate, I understand struggle.

“A struggle is a struggle. That’s why we’ve got to stick together.”

Ms Egan at UNISON’s trans equality campaign launch

As her presidential project, Ms Egan has chosen the Endeavour Project in Bolton, which supports survivors of domestic abuse and “doesn’t leave anyone behind”. The organisation offers a pet fostering service, to ensure that survivors of domestic abuse don’t have to give up their pets or leave them with abusers.

Every July, the organisation coordinates a ramble on Holcombe Moor in memory of Ellen Strange, and also honours the women who have been killed by domestic abuse in the past 12 months, which Ms Egan attends as part of group of local UNISON members.

As president of the UK’s biggest trade union at a time where the government are openly targeting unions, Ms Egan recognises UNISON is facing a “massive challenge”

In response to Tory leadership candidate Liz Truss’s statement that she will crack down on trade unions, Ms Egan said: “It’s not solely an attack on the trade unions, it’s an attack on the working class, because it’s the trade unions who organise the working class and have the power to give people a voice.

“When Truss says she wants to undo all the red tape, that won’t just affect union members, it affects the whole of society and all the things we’ve worked for.”

The article ‘A struggle is a struggle. That’s why we’ve got to stick together’ first appeared on the UNISON National site.