theActivist members in ENGLAND & WALES

Issue 124
April 2024

IRELAND

Usdaw members take to Charter for Usdaw democracy

It is often said in the trade union movement, that a union

the picket line in Swindon is only as strong as its membership. That’s why the Activist
believes it is of major importance to empower lay members,
through elected structures to ensure that Usdaw most
effectively fights to defend its members and improve their
pay and conditions of work.
The Activist believes that Usdaw’s rulebook provides for
a number of important democratic rights for members.
The commitment for Usdaw to hold an annual conference,
to elect its delegations to major conferences of affiliated
organisations such as the TUC are some of the measures
that aren’t always present in other trade unions.
There are further ways that Usdaw’s democratic traditions
can be strengthened. But this is not just a question of
formal rules, it is also necessary for members to organise
themselves to fully take advantage of the democratic rights
within Usdaw that exist. That is why the Activist works with
others in the Broad Left to champion a fighting approach to
issues facing retail, distributive and allied workers.
The following points are all measures that the Activist
believes would strengthen the ability of members to
influence the policy and action of the union to ensure we
HELEN HARRIS plus a few agency workers. Usdaw can win the victories our hard-working members deserve.
SWINDON SOCIALIST PARTY membership is over 90% and has They are put forward as a contribution to be debated within

A
risen in recent years due to the ac- the union, and we would welcome contributions to the
bright and breezy spring tivities of the local rep. Activist from Usdaw members around these issues.
day welcomed Swindon’s The disparity in pay exists be-
GXO drivers at their Up- cause historically Swindon’s work- A member-led trade union
per Stratton warehouse ers are members of Usdaw, whereas ●● Make the union affordable for part-timers. Re-open the
onto the street, at the start the northern workers are members ‘part-time’ scale C to new members to help bring short
of the Usdaw union’s 48-hour strike. of Unite. There was a previous at- and zero-hour contract workers into Usdaw.
The dispute, over equal pay, has tempt by workers in Swindon to join ●● Make branches more accessible to the wider
been rumbling for over ten years. Unite, but the complex procedure membership – advertise meetings widely to Usdaw
Workers at the B&Q warehouse are of getting a union recognised did members and provide a union directory to enable contact
paid nearly 10% less than those not succeed at that time. with branch officers
in similar workplaces in the north GXO is a US-based company ●● Elected branch secretaries to have access to their
of England, where the cost of liv- which has reported over 12.5% in- membership list
ing and especially house prices are crease on earnings for 2023 and ●● Full backing to union reps victimized by management
lower. over 25% increase over the previous
In addition, Swindon’s workers year. Union officials more accountable to the
cover London, with all the difficul- Morale and determination are membership
ties that driving in the city entails. high and the workers are being well ●● Elect the deputy general secretary every five years
The dispute has finally boiled supported by the Usdaw officials, as ●● Expand the numbers of elected union full time officials
over into action, partly through the well as some of the agency drivers ●● Elected officials to receive no more than the average
impacts of the rising cost of living, and passing traffic. wage of a skilled worker
but also through the mobilisation
work of the Usdaw rep, and the
nationalshop A democratic Annual Delegate Meeting
●● For independent trade unionism. No to ‘partnership’
stewardsnetwork
frustration engendered by GXO
management. They recently called that only benefits the bosses – no union backing for
a meeting but failed to put an im- Conference 2024 - 22 June 11am- events at ADM hosted by the employers
proved offer on the table. 4.30pm at Conway Hall, London ●● Give the standing orders committee full control of
Usdaw has 135 drivers at the site, See shopstewards.net for more conference agenda, not just in Blackpool

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theActivist the bulletin of members in

Usdaw: Prepare for action to resist negotiating team recommends

a clear rejection. Usdaw failed

Morrisons management attacks

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 recom-
mendation to be used by arbitra-
tion service Acas to justify siding
with management for a third
time.
Indeed, the workplace ballot
of the membership over an offer
could be an important gauge of
the preparedness of the member-
ship to take action and to identify
where additional resources may
need to be put in to win a statutory
industrial action ballot. Meetings
of Usdaw members on a local or
regional basis, or even a national
online meeting for all Morrisons
Usdaw members, would be other
key ways to prepare.
But preparation is needed
externally as well as internally.
The full resources of the union
should be mobilised behind
A FORMER MORRISONS USDAW REP pension contributions, while the their trade union Usdaw, which Morrisons members. This means
company puts in 5%. This is set to was not consulted by the com- rallying all Usdaw members be-

T he latest in a series of at-

tacks by Morrisons’ private
equity owners has been a cut
be reversed over a series of stages
so that workers will pay 5% and
the company 3%. This is nothing
pany on these changes.
In response, Morrisons reps
have reported that Usdaw has
hind the workers and appealing
for other TUC affiliates to lend
their support too. This could in-
in the pension contributions of short of an attack on the pay of asked them to get the member- clude public rallies of support, as
workers. Currently, Morrisons Morrisons workers and has cor- ship ready for a potential strike GMB workers did in Asda several
workers pay 3% of their salary in rectly met with opposition from ballot. Given the direction the years ago when threatened by
company has gone since the fire and rehire, marching on the
private equity takeover, this is a company’s head office in Leeds.

Join the fightback welcome step. Workers have wel-

comed that Usdaw is stepping up
While workers in the distri-
bution wings of supermarkets

JOIN THE
to challenge these attacks. in warehouses and road trans-
Our understanding is that the port have taken action in recent
plans are in limbo pending the years, this year has already seen

SOCIALISTS
outcome of the annual pay ne- the first strike action by retail
gotiations. It is unlikely, but not workers in a long time as Asda
impossible, that Morrisons may workers organised by GMB have
make a sufficient pay offer, giv- taken action. But for Morrisons
●● Visit socialistworld.net ing workers a substantial pay rise workers to take strike action on a
to catch up with the increased national scale will be something
●● England & Wales call
cost of living and to cover the the retail sector has not seen in
020 8988 8777 increased pension contributions decades. This is why there is so
●● Scotland call being imposed. If the company much potentially at stake in this
07889135533 fails to do this, then it should be situation where victory or defeat
●● Ireland call rejected. could have important ramifica-
If the offer is inadequate, tions for the position of all retail
0876956968
it is important that Usdaw’s workers in years to come.

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