Retail and Distribution Activist Issue 14

Bulletin of Socialist Party members working in retail and distribution
January 2009
Issue 14

Vote Robbie (Robina) Segal For President

Tens of thousands of retail workers are being laid off. These workers are facing a bleak future, many of whom have been working on low wages for the big retail companies for years. Woolworths is now closed, yet all those workers are getting is the statutory redundancy payments of less than a few hundred pounds.
Gordon Brown is promising schemes to create new jobs. But what will these jobs be like? Will they be on decent wages with good working conditions and pensions, or will this be another New Labour gimmick?
Woolworths and other retail workers deserve better than empty promises from Gordon Brown, after all our union Usdaw subsidises New Labour to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds every year.
All companies threatening redundancies should be nationalised but under democratic workers’ control and management. We should open the books and find out where all the profits have gone – profits made by the workers.
I am standing for election to become president of Usdaw because our union needs to be a fighting union, we should be building a mass campaign against job losses but also demanding a minimum wage of £8 an hour without exceptions. The union should be taking workers' wages and conditions forward, not watching them go backwards.
And why are mainly female and part-time shop workers treated as if they are only earning pin money by the trade union leaders? It is time for all shop workers to get active to build Usdaw as a democratic and independent campaigning trade union.
I have been a trade unionist since the age of 19, a Tesco union rep for 21 years, and a member of the Usdaw executive Council for nine years.
The election runs from 19 January to 13 February.

Robbie Segal


Slaughter in the high street

As Robbie has explained the slaughter of retail workers continues. Always looking for some publicity and when all around are announcing redundancies Tesco is creating 10,000 in their UK business, Morrisons over 5,000, Sainsbury’s up to 4,000 and Iceland 2,500.
However, the Activist receives reports explaining the real life in the retail sector. What is needed is a union that can use the anger of our members to fight against the attacks by the bosses. We publish below two articles from out members explaining life in retail.


Christmas is over and the cutbacks begin

After dragging almost the entire workforce in over the Christmas period to do extra shifts to capitalise on the usual higher sales of that period, the Morrisons I work at (and the others in the area) have decided to repay the workforce by cutting back on hours. Of course, there are usually cutbacks on temporary staff that are taken on for Christmas, but this is much more.
In the name of saving money (or in reality keeping up their profits), staff have had their hours cut on a temporary basis with someone losing 24 hours of work per week! Others have been moved from working on Sundays (for which we get paid time and a half) to other days of the week. Although it is not a large proportion of the staff who are affected directly, it will affect everyone indirectly as we’ll all be expected to pick up the slack. It’s another story of workers who have mortgages and rents to pay, suffering for the effects of the capitalist economic crisis.
Shop workers need a fighting trade union to represent them and fight for better conditions, and that’s why I’d urge all USDAW members to vote for Robbie Segal in the upcoming elections.

A Morrisons Worker


No festive joy for shop workers

CHRISTMAS IS finally staggering to a close at the lingerie company I work for. After 23 December, I was able to take four days off for Christmas. To be allowed this luxury I worked almost continuously for the previous six weeks, between 8.5 and 10 hours a day, having taken only one day off.
We were informed that on the first two work days after Christmas (Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 December), we would be required to work 12 hour shifts, to make up for lost time. For all staff, including Christmas temps, this is technically overtime, although the consequence of refusal would be a straight dismissal for temps.
For permanent staff the punishment for refusing to do overtime is consignment to making boxes for a couple of days, general harassment and threats of disciplinary action.
Of course, Christmas is the busiest time for retail workers and no unskilled worker will complain about the offer of overtime during the period when extra money is most needed.
What we have every right to complain about, however, is being bullied into doing overtime, being bullied and threatened into working harder than is reasonable (or even, in some cases, than is humanly possible); being forced to work in near freezing temperatures because the company is too cheap to heat the warehouse (despite grossing over £500,000 a week, for six weeks); for the temps having to accept the poverty wage of between £5.50 and £6.00 an hour, depending on their agency and being made to feel ashamed of the human weakness of illness. Sick days are not paid, nor are breaks.
What the workers at this workplace need is a trade union, and that is exactly what Socialist Party members who work there are building. We are aiming to achieve the 51% membership (out of 30 permanent staff) that is required to force the company to recognise Usdaw as our union. Having built a core of five activists we feel ready to begin a more general recruitment policy in order to get recognition before the end of the January sales.
The majority of the young workers are angry, and starting to realise what a life of unskilled work will mean. The older workers are starting to see that this company has no great intention to look after them.

Programme

We are recruiting union members with the following programme:

• An end to bullying management. An end to mandatory overtime.
• An end to discrimination against temporary workers. For the same conditions and pay levels for temporary workers. For protection against dismissal for sickness or lateness. For full training of temps.
• For paid breaks. For extra breaks for those working overtime, an extra 15 minutes every two hours.
• For measures to be taken to protect workers from the cold during winter.
• For a guarantee of job security, and for permanent jobs to be made available to a proportion of temps. For a 35-hour week with no loss of pay, which could be accomplished by paying breaks.

We are confident that in the first quarter of 2009 we will achieve recognition. Workers are sick and tired of accepting poverty wages to line pockets of certain rich ‘Dragons’. We will continue to build the union, and with it the Socialist Party.

A retail worker


If you have any stories about what is happening in your workplace
then please send them to the Activist
at shopworker@socialistparty.ork.uk

If you have a colleague who would like to receive
a regular copy of the Activist or other materials to democratise
our union then send their
e-mail address to shopworker@socialistparty.org.uk

Retail and Distribution Activist no 13

Bulletin of Socialist Party members working in retail and distribution
December 2008
Issue 13

New Year Greetings From Robbie (Robina) Segal (Usdaw President Candidate)

Dear Sisters and Brothers

Unfortunately, 2009 will be one of the hardest years faced by retail workers for decades. During my campaign for Usdaw’s general secretary, I said that what was at stake was the future direction of the union. My socialist message received 40% of the vote. If the election had taken place today, I am sure the bankruptcy of the present leadership’s policies - as shown by their response to the economic crisis - would have given me even more votes.
My warning that there needed to be a change of attitude because the union would not be ready to face the challenges of the impending economic crisis has proven correct. It is clear from recent reports that two of the major UK banks came within hours of collapse and New Labour came to their rescue and the tax payer paid the bill. Our members have contributed millions to save the banks and yet when our jobs are threatened there is no help for us.
What is needed is a militant programme of action which includes: demonstrations, lobbying the government, occupations of the stores and workplaces, and the nationalisation of the major retailers. The trade unions have been silent, Usdaw must demand at the TUC that a progamme of coordinated action be planned which must include one day stoppages.
John Hannett and the policies of Usdaw leaders’ have been tested with their response to the Woolworth closure. They have failed.
I ask you to help mobilise your members in the President and EC elections to ensure they vote for candidates who want change. Have a good new year but let us make 2009 the year that Usdaw starts the fight back.

Comradely
Robbie (Robina) Segal


The slaughter of retail jobs

We reported in the last issue of the Activist of the slaughter of retail jobs and unfortunately it has been proven correct. Woolworth is now gone and so as many other high street names and thousands of jobs will be lost in the coming months. Already in the days following Christmas the following have announced problems: Whittard, tea sellers; UCS, fashion; Zavvi, music; Olan Mills, the photo shop; and Adams, the children’s clothing retailer. How many more jobs will be lost before our leader start the fight back?
Understanding the recession
The Activist welcomes the decision of the Union to try and come to grips with a strategy to fight the recession. At the officials’ jamboree, in Alton Towers at the beginning of the New Year, there is a session on the recession. We have to ask will it establish the fighting programme that is clearly needed by our Union. The key is to understand the nature of the crisis. The Activist argues that it is a crisis of capitalism. And without a understanding of capitalism then there can be no real strategy to defeat the onslaught of the bosses.


Increase the minimum wage

The British Chamber of Commerce, the bosses’ organistion, has demanded that there should be no increase in the national minimum wage in 2009. They argue that any increase would undermine jobs and lead to unemployment. They stated:
"We're not opposed to the minimum wage going up when employment is high and the economy is doing well, but when jobs are being lost daily and a recession is in full swing, it makes no sense to increase it," said director general David Frost. "Most businesses are prioritising survival at the moment. A rise in the minimum wage would not help firms hold on to staff and would simply add to unemployment."
This is a declaration of war against the low-paid workers. The words should act as a warning for our negotiators; the bosses will want us to pay for their crisis. Our members are paid little more than pence above the minimum wage and, therefore, what is needed is a coordinated programme of action. Why not increase the minimum wage to give us workers the extra money we need to spend to make ends meet and at the same time put back into the economy?
The Activist pointed out months ago that the economic crisis, which had been caused by the wealthy and their capitalist system, that the bosses would demand the low-paid workers to pay. This is why the trade unions should be raising the need to change the political system. If capitalism is failing then we should be demanding a socialist system. Socialism would defend the rights of the majority rather than keeping a few fat cats in luxury. For a full analysis of the current economic and political crisis then check out www.socialistparty.org.uk


Email addresses needed

If you have a colleague who would like to receive
a regular copy of the Activist or other materials to democratise the our union then send their
e-mail address to shopworker@socialistparty.org.uk

Christmas is Over and the Cutbacks Begin

by a Morrisons Worker

After dragging almost the entire workforce in over the Christmas period to do extra shifts to capitalise on the usual higher sales of that period, the Morrisons I work at (and the others in the area) have decided to repay the workforce by cutting back on hours. Of course, there are usually cutbacks on temporary staff that are taken on for Christmas, but this is much more.
In the name of saving money (or in reality keeping up their profits), staff have had their hours cut on a temporary basis with someone losing 24 hours of work per week! Others have been moved from working on Sundays (for which we get paid time and a half) to other days of the week. Although it is not a large proportion of the staff who are affected directly, it will affect everyone indirectly as we’ll all be expected to pick up the slack. Its another story of workers who have mortgages and rents to pay, suffering for the effects of the capitalist economic crisis.
Shop workers need a fighting trade union to represent them and fight for better conditions, and that’s why I’d urge all USDAW members to vote for Robbie Segal in the upcoming elections.