Nearly two months ago I said that we would be heading for a winter of discontent if we did not get the virus under control – and that UNISON, my union, had to be ready to back walkouts to protect both public services workers and the public if safety wasn’t put first.

We now know that the government’s own advisors had argued the same thing at the same time – and were also ignored. Yesterday Independent SAGE have added that a “hard lockdown,” which includes closing schools, would take three weeks to control the virus compared to nine weeks if schools remain open.

But once again this government has chosen to defer and extend the problem rather than dealing with it swiftly – because even now they are ideologically resistant to spending to protect our economy during a hard lockdown. From the privatised test and trace fiasco to the late lockdown, they are following the money, not the science.

We need to get the virus under control, and we need to protect workers and the economy, like our members who are struggling to feed their families and heat their homes. These things are not competing aims. But the way we get both done is to ensure that frontline workers who are being asked to cope with this crisis get a voice in leading the response.

Our members in social care and the NHS are working double shifts to try to keep everyone safe. Our members in schools and colleges are trying to support children and students who have had their development thwarted by this pandemic. Our members are burning out from stress and trauma, and doing all this after a decade of pay cuts which have left some of them reliant on food banks.

The government has listened to its mates in big business and the result is that we have a non-functional test and trace system worth £12 billion. It’s time to listen to workers instead.

On Sunday I made five demands that unions should fight for as the second partial lockdown kicks in. These are:

• Ending the test and trace scandal by investing in NHS capacity and putting the system under direct control of the NHS as well as cities and regions, while scaling up mass-testing along Liverpool lines.
• No more care home disasters: we need PPE and testing at NHS levels across the care sector and appropriate PPE across the entire public sector in the hands of a national public procurement scheme.
• Closing schools, colleges and universities to students and ensuring resources and enforcement are in place to secure them when they reopen.
• Lockdown on full pay to protect those required to not work, and risk assessments and protection plans for vulnerable workers, for example those from minority or low-income backgrounds.
• A seat at decision-making tables for workers and their unions, and an opportunity to scrutinise high level plans.

This is far from the end of it. A 20% pay cut will leave low-wage workers in serious financial difficulty. Workers over 60 who have been told that they are vulnerable (but not extremely vulnerable) are being forced to put themselves at greater risk.

Black workers and disabled workers who are more likely to die from Covid still do not have adequate protection in place. The lack of support for council services puts at-risk people further in danger – this lockdown could be a death sentence for women in abusive relationships, who need additional support immediately.

I am running for General Secretary of UNISON and were I leading it, we would be fighting to ensure these demands were met – with a programme of massive organisation and movement-building, public campaigning, and tough negotiations.

But I am writing this because these issues can’t wait for the election; our union and others need to lead this struggle right now as we go into the most dangerous winter in living memory.

There has never been a more important moment for the labour movement to make its voice heard. Unions are the form of protective equipment which can shield workers from the impact of a second wave and second lockdown.

UNISON along with every other union needs to find the fighting spirit that this moment demands. It’s time for every trade unionist to stand up, and stand together.