WE WILL forever be in debt to the key workers who lost their lives during the pandemic, trade unionists have declared ahead of today’s one-minute silence to honour them. 

People across Britain will pay tribute at 11am today to NHS staff, bus drivers, shopkeepers, prison guards, posties and other key workers who’ve died while saving lives and keeping the country running.  

Tributes from local NHS trusts and loved ones yesterday marked the deaths of 92 people working for the health service since March 25, though it’s likely that the true figure is higher, with Nursing Notes claiming that at least 124 healthcare workers have died from the virus. 

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “We will be forever in debt to the workers who have died during this pandemic, whether they be nurses, doctors, care staff or other essential workers. 

“They have lost their lives looking after our loved ones and keeping our country running.” 

As unions representing workers on the front lines paid tribute, they also highlighted the failures that many believe have contributed to key workers’ deaths. 

Ms O’Grady described the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for front-line workers as a “grotesque failure” by ministers. 

“We remember those who have died and recommit to fight for the living,” she continued. “Every worker should be safe at work: during this pandemic, and always.”
 
The minute’s silence follows a campaign led by Unison, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Royal College of Midwives. 

The tribute coincides with International Workers’ Memorial Day, which takes place around the world each year on April 28, remembering all those who have lost their lives at work or from work-related diseases. 

Unison said that this year the day holds a “special significance” as thousands sacrifice their health and lives around the world on the front lines of the crisis.

“Thousands of key staff are on the front line while the rest of us are in lockdown,” Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said. “That’s why we’ve issued this call for the whole country to take part and remember the sacrifices they’ve made.”

RCN general secretary Donna Kinnair insisted: “This must not be the last time that sacrifice is recognised.

“The country and its leaders owes a tremendous debt to these key workers and the many more who are on shift again today.”

Yesterday two more NHS staff were reported to have died from the virus. One of them was Jenny Esson, a 45-year-old NHS worker at a mental-health trust in Cambridgeshire, who died in hospital on April 17. 

“If Jenny saw something she felt was wrong, she wouldn’t just moan about it,” a family member said in a statement. “She hated social injustice and stigmatising of any kind. She was my hero, my soulmate, my everything.”

NHS admin worker Laura Tanner, a mother-of-two from Basildon in Essex, was 51 when she died from Covid-19 on April 1. She had worked for the NHS for more than 10 years. Her husband Kevin Tanner described her as “friendly to everyone.”  

He said: “I’m having stories coming through where she would just randomly meet people at the bus stop, friends that she’d made, just got talking to people. They’ve laid flowers on the doorstep.

“It’s just heartbreaking. She really was loved.”

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed the Scottish government will join in the minute’s silence. She said that it will be a “our obligation to keep care and health workers safe” was government’s “most vital” duty.

The number of key workers who have died from the virus is not yet known, but the Office for National Statistics announced last week that it is working on this. 

Earlier this month Mayor Sadiq Khan confirmed that 21 London transport workers had died. 

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “In recent days there has been a disturbing stream of Tory backbenchers and grandees talking up an easing of lockdown measures.

“To be clear: we will advise our members in the transport sector against co-operating with any unsafe easing of lockdown measures.”

The rising death toll of key workers comes amid outrage that key workers are still not being supplied with adequate protective wear.

Yesterday research by the Royal College of Physicians showed that doctors are still finding it harder generally to access any sort of PPE, despite ministers’ pledges to solve the problem. 

The Department of Health & Social Care has insisted that it is working “night and day” to provide health and social-care staff with PPE, claiming it has delivered over a billion items since the outbreak began. 

Labour leader Keir Starmer said that no worker should be risking their lives because they don’t have the right PPE. 

“We can’t go out and clap on a Thursday and pretend that when this is over we can return to business as usual,” he said in a video message to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day. 

“Many of those on the front line have been undervalued and underpaid for far, far too long, and we owe them and the whole country a vision of a better future when we come through this pandemic — as we will.”

Trade union councils in Wales called yesterday for a 10 per cent pay rise for all NHS, front-line and care workers. 

President of Cardiff Trades Union Council Katrine Williams said it was vital that workers being hailed as heroes should receive a pay rise as a “step towards returning their pay to 2010 levels, plus hazard pay for working in dangerous conditions.”