theActivist members in
Issue 95
ONLY PUBLIC OWNERSHIP CAN
STOP MORE JOB CUTS MISERY
National Shop Stewards Network and Activist suppporters, including Usdaw President Amy Murphy
protesting outside Debenhams Head Office in London as part of a recent day of action
Iain Dalton, Usdaw Broad Left
Chair
Another month, another an-
nouncement of job cuts across
the retail industry. In the last
month we’ve seen announce-
ments of 1,500 jobs to go in WH
Smiths, 450 in Selfridges, 950
jobs in M&S, whilst back in July
Boots announced 4,000 jobs
to go, the largest so far. That
was until Debenhams added
2,500 more job cuts onto those
announced alongside store clo-
sures in earlier months, mean-
ing now around 30% of its work-
ers are affected, whilst reports
of the drawing up of plans for
the possible liquidation of the
company add even more urgen-
cy to the situation.
Like their colleagues in Ireland,
workers are having their rights
disregarded in the process. As
Usdaw National Officer Dave
Gill comments in an Usdaw
press release “We have been
contacted by members who
say they are being made redun-
dant by conference call, with
no meaningful consultation
usdawactivist.wordpress.com ■ usdawactivist@gmail.com ■ Facebook: ‘Usdaw Activist’ ■ Twitter: @UsdawActivist
ENGLAND & WALES
August 2020
IRELAND
Join the union and help us
organise for
•No lifting of any Covid measures
without agreement from elected lo-
cal health & safety committees/reps
•Full pay for all workers self-isolat-
ing or furloughed from day one - no
to forcing staff to use holidays
• An immediate £12/hour minimum
wage as a step to £15 + hazard pay
•Increase staffing levels in store to
carry out any necessary cleaning &
hygiene duties, bring back in house
outsourced cleaners. Full time con-
tracts to all those who want them
•Scrap the 2 year qualifying period -
Full employment rights from day one
• Scrap performance targets
•Time and a half for all overtime
worked over contracted hours
•Reinstate lost paid breaks and
premium payments, double pay on
Sundays and time and a half on
or proper notice period, as re- In the UK, union organisation Saturdays. No extension of Sunday
quired by law.” in Debenhams is weak, with trading
handfuls of Usdaw members in •Trade union control over changing
In both Ireland and Britain, some stores. Rather than just staff duties, hiring and firing, and
Debenhams management and issuing press releases, Usdaw opening time changes
their administrators are expect- officials and branches should •35 hour working week without loss
ing the tax payer to pick up the be directly engaging with De- of pay
tab. We fully support the calls benhams workers (whilst tak- •Open the books to trade union in-
by both Mandate and Usdaw for ing all necessary precautions spection if companies say they can’t
such loopholes to be closed im- regarding Covid-19), including afford these measures
mediately. leafletting workforces at the • Bailout workers, not the bosses
start of the day. and the speculators. Camapign for
But whilst getting the redun- nationalisation to save jobs.
dancy pay workers are entitled Public campaigning highlight- •Democratically elected committees
to is some consolation for work- ing the scale of the job cuts of workers and consumers to control
ers, this still leaves workers in can be crucial too to gain fur- prices and any rationing policies at
a period where unemployment ther press coverage, although all levels.
levels are sky-rocketing. We it was mistaken for some left •For socialist planning to put the
need a strategy to defend jobs. groups campaigning in soli- needs of workers first, not share-
Key to this are drives to union- darity with Irish Debenhams holders profits.
ise these mostly unorganised workers to call for a boycott Join Usdaw - usdaw.org.uk/join
workforces. Because Deben- of UK retail stores. Irish De-
hams Irish operations were tak- benhams workers had called
en over from a previous compa- for a boycott of Irish online
Join the fightback
ny Roches, then the workforce sales, which the UK manage-
in Ireland has a large degree of ment transferred ownership to JOIN THE
union organisation with shop themselves when closing the
stewards and lay activists that stores. But a boycott of retail SOCIALISTS
●● England & Wales
have played a leading role in sales in the UK in support of socialistparty.org.uk
organising demonstrations and Irish workers, particularly with ●● Scotland
pickets of stores to stop assets an unorganised workforce in socialistpartyscotland.org.uk
being removed. continued on back> ●● Ireland militant-left.org
 theActivist
RETAIL WORKERS & COVID - LESSONS FROM THE US
Part of a interview by Nick Wurst of
the Independent Socialist Group
(US) with Rich, a Stop and Shop
worker (for full interview which
also deals with the significant
strike at Stop and Shop in 2019
visit independentsocialistgroup.
org - the Activist covered the
strike in issue 80.) Stop and Shop
workers are organised as part of
the United Food and Commercial
Workers (UFCW).
ISG: As the coronavirus threat-
ened to spread to the U.S., did
the company take any precau-
tions in order to protect its mem-
bership? Did the union organize
workers to put pressure on the
company to stock up on PPE or
make other preparations?
Rich: Covid 19 is a non-forgiving
virus just like every virus: it’s
only job is to strengthen itself.
The union locals have always
been looking for more and more
ways to force the company to
protect its workforce. They have
supplied us with masks, face
shields, plexiglass in front of not
only the cashiers but deli, sea-
food etc. and arrows on the floor
marking aisles one way. Does it
work? NO! No one actually fol-
lows the directions. My biggest
issue has always been that we
are not allowed to tell a custom-
er they can’t come into the store
without a mask. That tells me
they [the company] truly are not
concerned about my safety or my
family’s safety.
nationalshop stewardsnetwork
NSSN virtual TUC rally
Sunday 12th September 1-3pm
For more info, visit shopstewards.net
or like ‘National Shop Stewards
Network’ on facebook
usdawactivist.wordpress.com ■ usdawactivist@gmail.com ■ Facebook: ‘Usdaw Activist’ ■ Twitter: @UsdawActivist
the bulletin of CWI members in
ISG: What has been the experi-
ence of Stop and Shop workers
during the pandemic? What sort
of dangers and risks have work-
ers been exposed to? What steps
has the union taken to keep the
company accountable?
Rich: People are at risk every-
day just walking in the building.
There are stores that have had
over 20 cases of COVID-19 in
employees alone. They don’t tell
anyone about it, the solution is
to have human resources come
in, look at security tapes, and de-
cide who may have come in con-
tact with such a person and send
them to be tested. The union has
gone after the company since
the beginning; there are mem-
bers that have not worked since
the virus started because they
are either high risk or scared to
work. Are they being paid? No,
but they cannot be terminated
either. If you test positive you are
able to take an extra 2 weeks off
which the company is willing to
pay you for.
ISG: Towards the start of the pan-
Stop and Shop workers on strike in defence of healthcare benefits in
2019 - photo from the Worcester Organiser
The view from
the shopfloor
An Usdaw member in Aberdeen
At my non-essential retail workplace in
Aberdeen, major concerns have been
felt by many workers over the safety
of reopening the store and the meas-
ures that have been taken to prevent
a spread. Overall, a few steps have
demic, Stop and Shop agreed to
give an additional 10% hazard
pay to all workers. Recently, with
the push to reopen the economy,
Stop and Shop has ended that
pay, despite the continued rise
in infections. How is the union
fighting to defend hazard pay?
What steps can the public take
to support UFCW workers? What
is the mood of the workers, do
they want to fight?
Rich: Stop and Shop has now
started calling hazard pay “As-
sociate appreciation pay.” Ask
anyone if they truly feel appreci-
ated. The union is not only pass-
ing out flyers to the customers
asking them to go online and
sign the petition to reinstate the
extra 10% but they have politi-
cians going into stores asking
store managers to take written
statements from them signed by
others to reinstate it. A lot of the
workers are disappointed and
feel disrespected because it was
taken away, and some are willing
to help organize. Some stores do
real well, some stores struggle
getting members to do it.
been taken to protect
staff and customers from the spread
of Covid, with a limit of 60 people al-
lowed within the shop at any one time,
and the enforcement of the wearing of
masks as per the law.
These measures are well and good
but concerns have bubbled up that
>continued from front
the UK, will seem to workers
to be putting Irish workers jobs
ahead of their own. In real-
ity, the jobs of all Debenhams
workers are under threat which
requires the maximum unity
that can be built between De-
benhams workers in each
country.
The main demand which
should be raised, is that of pub-
lic ownership. The increasing
levels of job and store closures
have demonstrated the incapa-
bility of Debenhams manage-
ment and administrators of
protecting the interests of De-
benhams workers. This needs
to be linked closely to the idea
of workers control whereby dis-
cussion of how such a nation-
alised retail company could fit
alongside other publicly owned
assets as well as discussing
what products and services
could be provided by such as
company, as we explored in an
article in the Activist no 92.
A slaughter of jobs over the
next few months will come for
retail workers, alongside other
sections of the working class
unless a bold campaign is
mounted to defend jobs, start-
ing by bringing together mem-
bers in workplaces affected
by job cuts to draw up a cam-
paigning strategy to save their
jobs. We say to the right-wing
majority of the union leader-
ship, either fight or step aside
so that those who are prepared
to co-ordinate such a campaign
can instead lead this struggle.
the eagerness to reopen during the
pandemic has endangered the health
of workers in the bosses’ drive for prof-
its. Management were very hesitant to
close the workplace and tried to argue
we should have essential status at the
beginning of lockdown. It is important
that as Socialists we argue the need
to protect workers above all else and
certainly over the eager efforts to drive
up profits by companies throughout the
UK.