UNISON Eastern region isn’t short of amazing activists, so when it comes to picking the Activist of the Year, our judges have their work cut out.
But it would be hard to argue with their decision to give the award to Sam Hemraj at our 2022 branch awards.
“I was so surprised,” said Sam, North West Anglia Hospitals branch secretary, “when they were describing everything it took a while to click it was me.”
Parts of those achievements will be familiar to a few UNISON activists: a branch secretary with only 21 hours facility time, juggling union duties with her job as a healthcare assistant and having to do a lot of union work in her own time, when she’s not busy as a Peterborough City Councillor.
But just as she was facing up to Covid, doing extra shifts to cover sickness while working with the trust to keep staff safe, her employer decided it was a good time to outsource its catering, portering and other patient services.
She led a campaign against the privatisation bid: building membership and public support and forcing the trust to back down.
Sam’s proud of the campaign.
“It’s the best thing I’ve done as a union rep, saving those 72 jobs. But it was a collective effort, I couldn’t have done it without the reps, it’s their victory too.
“And now I’ve been through a dispute once I won’t be afraid to do it again, especially knowing I’ve got the support of the region.”
The branch is still committed to bringing cleaning services back in-house, but in the meantime Sam’s busy leading a campaign to up-band healthcare assistants who are working beyond their job description and encouraging her colleagues to get involved in UNISON’s campaign to Put NHS Pay Right.
But it’s not all plain sailing winning an award: “It’s an amazing honour but I’m having an argument with my husband now about whether to leave the trophy at home or in the union office!”
But wherever she keeps her gong, it’s a massive congratulations from UNISON Eastern for scooping Activist of the Year 2022.
