theActivist members in ENGLAND & WALES

Issue 125
Usdaw ADM 2024

IRELAND

Tories Out – but will a Starmer government

deliver for Usdaw members?

A
fter 14 years of Tory rule facing us being resolved under a representatives who were pre-
workers are desperate for new government. pared to stand up to the Asda and
change. With seemingly This is reflected in the fact that Morrisons bosses, and others? If
endless austerity meas- strike action is taking place in the we had candidates that were pre-
ures applied to public retail sector. Workers rightly lack pared to campaign to bring domi-
services, and wages stagnating over confidence that a Labour govern- nant retail companies into public
that time, compounded by the cost ment will intervene to bring the ownership to save jobs, rather than
of living crisis in recent years, the ruthless profiteering of the bosses, allowing private equity to smash
Usdaw
end of Tory rule can’t come soon especially in private equity-owned and grab profits and leave workers members
enough for many workers. Asda and Morrisons, to heel. In- on the scrapheap? could stand
Looming over this year’s ADM is stead, they are correctly seeking We have to be prepared to fight
that we are due a general election be- to use their own industrial might no matter who is in government, as candidates
fore the next one. This is reflected in to challenge them. We have to put and that fight would be greatly themselves,
the conference agenda with a num- pressure on Usdaw leaders to build strengthened if our union backed
ber of propositions from branches that fightback, otherwise the Starm- general election candidates that
alongside
placing demands on an incoming er-supporting leadership of our un- back our members, instead of sac- other trade
Labour government, with that the ion will try to hold members back so rificing our members’ interests in
unionists and
most likely outcome of a general as to not ‘rock the boat’ for a Labour craven support of the pro-big busi-
election. These demands include government. ness Labour leadership. Usdaw socialists
a number of issues where under members could stand as candi-
Keir Starmer’s leadership the party A working-class alternative dates themselves, alongside other
has retreated from pledges previ- But imagine what would be trade unionists and socialists, to
ously made – including investment possible if we had political help in that fight.
in green technology and free school
meals for primary school children.
Usdaw members may be hopeful
that some of the demands the union
has raised may be a carried out by
a Starmer-led government – includ-
ing repeal of the Tories Minimum
Service Levels legislation and meas-
ures to tackle attacks and abuse of
retail workers.
But Usdaw ADM’s in recent years
have passed a whole series of poli-
cies which Keir Starmer’s Labour
have dropped – these include rena-
tionalizing energy, water, railways
and Royal Mail, scrapping university
tuition fees and more. Some mem-
bers may be hoping against hope
that once elected a Labour govern-
ment might deliver on these, but
given Starmer and Rachel Reeves
constant talk of ‘maintaining fiscal
discipline’ members would be right
to be skeptical of many of the issues

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theActivist
Retail and distribution workers
strike back against greedy
and bullying bosses
U
sdaw’s 77th annual delegate
meeting takes place against a
background of the first strike ac-
tion in UK retail stores in decades
taking place with Asda workers in
the GMB members striking at a couple of
stores in the South East in recent months,
and a further store now balloting. Mean-
while, Unite has moved to ballot its work-
ers in two Morrisons warehouses over the
attacks on pensions.
Over the last year and a half where many
unions and workplaces to strike action
over the cost of living, it was notable that
there hadn’t been any strike action by Us-
daw members. This isn’t to say that big pay
rises weren’t won in some Usdaw work-
places, both with and without the possible
threat of strike action.
But it is clear some retail and distribu-
tion workers have been left behind. Like
workers in Unite and GMB over previous
years, Usdaw members have taken strike
action over pay this year at GXO distribu-
tion centre in Swindon which supplies
B&Q stores. More seriously, there have
been preparations made for a potential
strike ballot of Usdaw Morrisons workers
over the pensions issue.
Morrisons pensions
This is the latest in a series of attacks by
Morrisons’ private equity owners. Follow-
ing a pay rise last year of just 2% when in-
flation was 11%, selloffs of petrol stations
and warehouses, has been a cut in the pen-
sion contributions of workers.
Currently, Morrisons workers pay 3% of
their salary in pension contributions, while
the company puts in 5%. This is set to be re-
versed over a series of stages so that work-
ers will pay 5% and the company 3%. This
is alongside attacks on long service pay-
ments. This is nothing short of an attack on
the pay of Morrisons workers and has cor-
rectly met with opposition from their trade
union Usdaw, which was not consulted by
the company on these changes.
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the bulletin of
It is unlikely, but not impossible, that
Morrisons may make a sufficient pay of-
fer, giving workers a substantial pay rise to
catch up with the increased cost of living
and to cover the increased pension con-
tributions being imposed. If the company
fails to do this, then it should be rejected.
If the offer is inadequate, it is important
that Usdaw’s negotiating team recom-
mends a clear rejection. Usdaw failed to
reject the last two pay offers. Despite our
criticisms of the mandatory arbitration
clauses over pay in Usdaw’s recognition
agreement with Morrisons, we believe that
we should not allow the lack of a rejection
recommendation to be used by arbitration
service Acas to justify siding with manage-
ment for a third time.
Strike action by Morrisons workers
would potentially be on a much wider ba-
sis than anything in the retail and distribu-
tion sector in recent times and it will be
necessary to mobilise the whole of Usdaw
membership and the wider trade union
movement in support. Should both Us-
daw and Unite members in Morrisons be
successful in balloting for strike action,
then urgent meetings should take place
between representatives of both unions to
discuss co-ordating action and any other
campaigning on this issue.
Join the
fightback
JOIN THE
SOCIALISTS
members in
The Activist guide to ADM
2024 debates
This years ADM has once again a number of
positive propositions being put forward for
debate which we believe that if passed will
strengthen Usdaw as a campaigning union.
Unsurprisingly, a number of propositions
address the issue that there will be a
general election before the next ADM
and make calls on an incoming Labour
government. These include calling for
introducing free school meals for primary
school children, investing in green
technology, improving the rights of renters,
banning conversion therapy.
But there are other issues raised –
including what we believe should be a
priority issue for Usdaw’s Freedom From
Fear campaign – ending outsourcing of
security guards as suggested by Tesco NW
retail No1. We also hope the proposition
calling for earlier closing on Christmas Eve
is passed by ADM, but amended to one of
the earlier times proposed rather than 9pm
after many bus services will undoubtedly
have stopped at Christmas.
Pay is as ever a key issue – we hope by
the time delegates read this that Weetabix
has accepted the amendment to their
proposition on care sector pay to call for
care workers pay to be at least in line with
NHS workers rather than just limited to that.
The East Midlands Retail proposition on
neo-natal leave is a welcome proposition
and will hopefully be strengthened by the
Leeds PT amendments to make what it is
calling for more concrete.
There are plenty of motions dealing
with attacks on our public services, such
as Bournemouth and South Dorset’s
proposition calling for an end to closures
of public toilets as well as a number
of propositions which will likely be
compensated demanding keeping ticket
offices open.
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