THIS week is the TUC’s Heart Unions week — a chance for the trade union movement to celebrate the incredible work our unions are doing to win for working people.

After working through a global pandemic, union members have been forced to navigate their way through a cost-of-living crisis this year. Skyrocketing household costs have left workers struggling to afford the basics.  

Nurses, paramedics, rail staff, posties, teachers and other key workers are telling us they’re going to foodbanks and choosing not to turn the heating on.  

The trade union movement has risen to meet the immense challenge of the cost-of-living emergency.  

While ministers stick their fingers in their ears and ignore the pleas of working people, unions are tirelessly campaigning for fair pay, demanding action to protect jobs, and supporting members through thick and thin.  

Instead of getting around the table with unions and negotiating for fair pay, the government is instead trying to rush its draconian anti-strike Bill through Parliament.

The trade union movement will fight this spiteful Bill all the way.  

But while the government chooses to pick a fight with working people, unions are hard at work organising to win fair pay and better terms and conditions for workers across the economy. Heart Unions week is a chance for us to spotlight those wins and show there is power in a union.

Just ask young hospitality workers Annie Lawson-Foley, 22, and Nick Dacre, 24, who organised in their workplace last summer with help from the BFAWU.

Lawson-Foley, Dacre and their colleagues won a living wage for all workers aged 18 and over — equating to a 44 per cent pay rise for 18-year-old staff employed on the lower rate of minimum wage.

They won an end to zero-hours contracts. And they negotiated for rotas in advance, so their colleagues could plan their lives around work.

And ask 50 metal workers from Expanded Metal Company in Hartlepool, who earlier this month walked out for six days — the first strike at the company in more than 100 years — after a proposed real-terms pay cut.

Thanks to industrial action organised by their union, GMB, they have won a pay rise of 7.5 per cent, as well as a £600 lump sum and improved sick pay.  

And you could talk to the 200 baggage handlers and check-in staff at Luton airport, who won a pay rise of 28 per cent thanks to negotiations with Unite.  

I could go on and on. The fact is this: unions have the answers. We have a positive vision for Britain.  

For too long Britain has been trapped in a vicious cycle of stagnant growth, stagnant investment and stagnant wages. But we know it doesn’t have to be like this. We know it’s time for a proper long-term economic plan that rewards work not wealth.  

Working people deserve a seat at the table of power — and it’s the job of unions to get them there. Over the last year, unions have demonstrated their relevance and effectiveness in helping working people like never before. And support for unions is growing.

Just last week we saw Apple signing a union agreement for staff at its Glasgow store — the first Apple store in Britain to unionise.  

Heart Unions week is about celebrating the solidarity and power of a stronger trade union movement.  

Unions are winning for working people, and every worker should join a union. It is how we turn the tide on cuts, casualisation and two decades of standstill wages. And it is how we deliver what working people are asking for: a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage.

For more information on Heart Unions week visit: www.tuc.org.uk/HeartUnions.

Paul Nowak is general secretary of the TUC. Follow him on Twitter @nowak_paul.