By Christina McAnea (picture above, members at Chorley planting a commemorative COVID tree)
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the first COVID-19 lockdown. The pandemic was one of those rare moments in time when the world changed for everyone. Many of us will remember where we were, what we were doing and how we felt as our lives were upended.
Many too will remember how scared we were – about the possible consequences of COVID for us and our family and friends. Many more lost relatives and close friends and their lives will never be the same again.
For UNISON members working in the NHS, social care and other essential services, reflecting back on those first days of the pandemic will be especially poignant.
The nightmare faced by anyone working in a hospital, an ambulance station or a care home during this time is almost unimaginable. For the first few weeks, especially in care, many were providing vital care without the right safety kit.
For the most part they were also working in an environment that bore the scars of 10 years of austerity. Many moved into their workplaces, and faced isolation from their loved ones or lived with the daily fear of bringing the virus back into their family homes, or taking it into their workplaces.
For those who worked in other parts of the public sector, in local government, schools and policing, life was also fraught. Despite the huge challenges thrown up by social distancing and new ways of working, key workers made sure services and society kept running and that communities remained safe as safe as possible.
Of course, many members of the union suffered terribly. And it’s important that as this fifth anniversary passes, we remember and pay tribute to the those who contracted the virus or at work – especially those who lost their lives. Many more are still suffering with the effects of Long COVID and are still unable to work.
As our union made clear at the time, it should be in their memory that UNISON does everything it possibly can to ensure lessons are learned from the pandemic and that the same mistakes are never again repeated.
The public inquiry
This is very much in our minds as we continue to engage with the COVID-19 public inquiry. This is being led by a judge, Baroness Hallett, and is organised around modules, each looking at a specific issue or sector. Working with other unions and the TUC, UNISON continues to submit detailed evidence to this, ensuring the voices of our members are heard and pushing for specific recommendations.
Over recent months the focus has been on the module dedicated to the effect of the pandemic on the NHS and how it responded.
UNISON submitted written evidence and gave oral testimony at the public hearing. In the closing statement, counsel acting for the TUC set out UNISON’s calls for recommendations to ensure the UK never again goes into a pandemic with the staffing shortages the NHS faced in March 2020.
The union also made calls for practical measures to improve infection protection and control training, overhaul the working of the Health and Safety Executive and ensure there is always an adequate stock of good quality personal protective equipment for health and care workers.
An important theme of UNISON’s evidence, reflecting the testimony of our members, has been the need to address the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on Black workers and the lowest paid.
This informs our ongoing efforts to secure recommendations that tackle structural racism in the NHS and the lack of responsibility taken by contracting authorities for the health and safety of low-paid and poorly treated outsourced workers.
As we look ahead to the remainder of the inquiry, which will continue to take evidence up to 2026, it’s important we continue to support members affected by the pandemic to remember and share their experiences.
Remembrance and action
Over recent weeks UNISON members have been involved in the planting of commemorative trees at a number of locations (as pictured, top, in Chorley). Members from the north west have travelled to London to hold a silent vigil outside the public inquiry.
Further surveys and requests will be sent to those in social care, education and local government to help shape the evidence we submit to forthcoming inquiry modules.
Hopefully, these will encourage more to come forward and share their experiences of working during the pandemic so that these can be included in our inquiry submissions.
We also have to turn our thoughts to how we ensure the government acts on the inquiry’s recommendations. In many ways, evidence coming to light about the under-investment in public services, inadequate staffing levels and broken social care system – and how this all had such a negative impact on the UK’s pandemic response – echoes what UNISON’s been saying for years.
As such we need to think about how the inquiry adds force to our arguments and makes them much harder to ignore.
One of the few positives coming out of the pandemic was that it reminded us what we value. Not just our health, but family, friends and the ability to travel and socialise too.
And also the essential contribution public service workers make to communities across the UK and their dedication in trying to save lives and care for others. That was why we came out on our doorsteps, balconies and streets every Thursday evening at eight o’clock to applaud.
Five years on we must remember this and ensure the public inquiry does justice to the everyday heroism of our members.
The article Opinion: Reflecting on the pandemic five years on first appeared on the UNISON National site.
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