GMB is one of the UK’s largest and most powerful trade unions, representing over 500,000 workers across public services, emergency teams, and private industries. Its core mission is simple: to secure better pay, ensure workplace safety, and protect fairness and legal rights for its members.

Being part of a union means you never stand alone against an employer. It transforms individual vulnerabilities into collective power. Crucially, GMB has been entirely clear: they are providing the heavy-duty legal armour, but as CROs, we are the experts in our service. They will represent us exactly as we dictate. We are the union.

Organising a highly dispersed, nationwide government agency in less than a week is almost unheard of in trade union history. When the MCA threatened to strip away our hard-won worker rights, Coastguard Rescue Officers (CROs) mobilised overnight. Because of our rapid surge in numbers, the GMB National Congress took the extraordinary, extremely rare step of passing an emergency motion to fully adopt and back our campaign.