Windrush top of the agenda at Black members conference

At UNISON’s annual Black members’ conference in Brighton this year, Windrush was top of the agenda.

Speaking to conference, Reverend Clive Foster from the Windrush Commission acknowledged the contribution that UNISON has made in holding the government to account over the Windrush scandal.

Reverend Foster talked about post-war public services being shaped by the Windrush generation, then the shock of some of them being wrongly deported and treated as if they had no part in this.

“People should not have to navigate complexity to receive what they are owed,” he said.

Hetticia McIntosh (pictured above), a former nurse, shared her experience of having her UK status revoked. “I had my children here, I married here, I was in the army. And yet in 1978, when I went to renew my British passport, I was told that I was not entitled because I am no longer British,” she said.

“Windrush survivors don’t need sympathy, we need action.”

Ms McIntosh urged delegates and conference visitors to sign a petition calling for Windrush survivors’ legal representation to be covered by the state, in the same way the state has provided for the Horizon Post Office scandal survivors and infected blood scandal survivors.

“We, the Black ones, don’t have any legal representation,” she said.

Sign the petition

The first conference motion passed was for the union to fight to close the ethnicity pay gap for Black women.

Davena Rankin from Scotland said: “It’s easy for the debate on the gender pay gap to be abstract, but for UNISON women it’s the lived reality of not getting a mortgage, a lost promotion, no career progression. It’s double jeopardy for a Black woman.”

Another motion called for stronger action on the racism that Black NHS workers face. Moving the motion on behalf of Eastern region, Conroy Trenchfield said: “Black workers particularly face hostility from the public, and often there is a lack of support from colleagues. It’s isolating and demotivating.”

Conference agreed that protests from the far right present a health and safety risk to Black workers. This includes when travelling to work on the day of a far-right demonstration, but also in workplaces in which white colleagues vocalise their support for racist policies.

Another motion called for UNISON to oppose racism and the rise in far-right misinformation, harassment and intimidation. Speakers highlighted the significance of the Together Alliance national demonstration in London on 28 March 2026.

The post Windrush top of the agenda at Black members conference appeared first on UNISON National.