Usdaw
Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers
PredecessorNational Union of Distributive and Allied Workers
National Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen and Clerks
Founded1 January 1947
HeadquartersVoyager Building, 2 Furness Quay, Salford Quays, Manchester, M50 3XZ
Location
Members
Decrease 369,437 (2021)[1]
Key people
Paddy Lillis, General Secretary
Jane Jones, President
AffiliationsTUC, ICTU, STUC, Labour[2]
Websitewww.usdaw.org.uk

The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) is a trade union in the United Kingdom, consisting of over 360,000 members.[3] Usdaw members work in a variety of occupations and industries including: shopworkers, factory and warehouse workers, drivers, call centres, clerical workers, milkround and dairy process, butchers and meat packers, catering, laundries, chemical processing, home shopping and pharmaceutical. The retail sector employs around 2.77 million people.

Tackling cost of living issues is a key priority for Usdaw. The rising cost of everyday essentials such as food and clothes, piled on top of the sky-high prices of electricity, gas and transport as a cumulative effect on working people in Britain and is taking its toll.[4]

Usdaw is campaigning for the Government to take urgent action to 'Save Our Shops'.[5] They are calling for an urgent retail recovery plan that addresses issues facing high streets, stores and town centres.[6]

Usdaw relies upon a "partnership" model with large employers such as with Tesco, where there exists "privileged access" to the management of both organisations. This arrangement coupled with its actions has been met with criticism, such as where the union seemingly presents itself as being concerned more with maintaining its positive, comfortable position and easy membership supply than that of fair representation of its members.[7] This attitude has earned the union the pejorative backronym of Useless Seven Days A Week amongst workers and trade unionists.[7][8]

It is widely considered to be on the right-wing on the political spectrum,[9][10] occupying the "politically conservative" section of the Labour Party.[11][12] Usdaw is also affiliated to the Co-operative Party.[13] In November 2021, the union was criticised at its refusal to negotiate with a Nottingham-based employer who was proposing a 'fire-and-rehire' policy leading to workers having to negotiate for themselves.[14]

Usdaw is campaigning to win a “New Deal for Workers”: A minimum wage that workers can actually live on; secure hours and an end to zero hours contracts; sick pay for everyone, but not from day one of illness since mid-2023 they formally endorsed Morrisons axing of day-one sick pay in favour of a three-day waiting period for all hourly paid employees; stronger redundancy rights; fairness, equality and a stronger voice at work.[15] Usdaw’s annual Respect for Shopworkers Week usually takes place mid-November. During the campaign week Usdaw members are raising awareness of the union’s year-round Freedom from Fear Campaign, talking to the public to promote a message of ‘respect for shopworkers’.[16]

History

The union was formed in 1947 by the merger of the National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers and the National Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen and Clerks. Some other unions have since merged in, including the Amalgamated Society of Boot and Shoe Makers and Repairers in 1955,[17] and the Scottish Union of Bakers and Allied Workers in 1978.[18]

Publications

USDAW produces a quarterly membership magazine for members, Arena, as well as a bimonthly magazine for union activists, Network.

2022 annual survey report

Statistics taken from the USDAW 2022 annual survey of over 7,700 of its retail members showed that high levels of verbal abuse, threats and assaults were common in the industry. The survey also found the number of incidents has come down since the exceptionally high levels during the pandemic, but remain higher than pre-Covid levels in 2019.[19]


General Secretaries

Since 1947, USDAW has had eight General Secretaries:[20]

1947: Sir Joseph Hallsworth
1949: Sir Alan Birch
1962: Lord Allen of Fallowfield
1979: Bill Whatley
1986: Lord Davies of Coity
1997: Sir William Connor
2004: John Hannett
2018: Paddy Lillis

Presidents

Since 1947, USDAW has had eleven Presidents:[20]

1947: Percy Cottrell
1948: Walter Padley
1964: Dick Seabrook
1965: Rodney Haines
1967: Dick Seabrook
1974: Jim D. Hughes
1977: Sydney Tierney
1991: Audrey Wise
1997: Marge Carey, MBE
2006: Jeff Broome
2018: Amy Murphy[21]
2021: Jane Jones [22]

References

  1. ↑ "Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers Form AR21 for year ended 31 December 2021" (PDF). GOV.UK. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
  2. ↑ "TULO's member unions | Unions Together". Archived from the original on March 11, 2012. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
  3. ↑ "USDAW - About Us".
  4. ↑ "USDAW - Cost of Living".
  5. ↑ "USDAW - Save Our Shops".
  6. ↑ "USDAW - Save Our Shops".
  7. 1 2 Brookes, Marissa (2019). "(3) Service Sector Solidarity: Coordinating the Tesco and G4S Campaigns". The new politics of transnational labor : why some alliances succeed (illustrated ed.). Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. p. 101. ISBN 9781501733208. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  8. ↑ ""Precarious" work and industrial organisation in modern Britain (PART 2)". 0161 Festival. Manchester. 29 March 2019. Archived from the original on 23 June 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  9. ↑ Taylor, Andrew (1987). "(1) The Genesis of the Social Contract". The Trade Unions and the Labour Party (December 2018 ed.). Milton: Taylor & Francis. p. 114. ISBN 9780429833243. Retrieved 8 August 2022. Usdaw is traditionally right wing
  10. ↑ Marsh, David (27 February 1992). "(6) Trade Unions and the Labour Party - (s.2) Trade Unions and constitutional reform, 1979-83". The New Politics of British Trade Unionism Union Power and the Thatcher Legacy (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Education. p. 143. ISBN 9781349219216. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  11. ↑ Lynch, Samantha; Price, Robin; Pyman, Amanda; Bailey, Janis (15 March 2011). "(14) Representing and Organising Retail Workers: A Comparative Study of the UK and Australia". In Bozkurt, Ödül; Grugulis, Irena (eds.). Retail Work. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 284. ISBN 9780230344884.
  12. ↑ Thomas, Mark (3 June 2019). "How supermarket workers buck the trend". Socialist Review. No. 447. London: Socialist Workers Party. Archived from the original on 8 August 2022. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  13. ↑ Co-operative Party Wider movement
  14. ↑ Hartley, Joshua (17 November 2021). "Former employee of factory claims to be a victim of 'fire and hire'". Nottingham Post. Nottingham: Trinity Mirror. Archived from the original on 8 August 2022. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  15. ↑ "USDAW - A New Deal for Workers".
  16. ↑ "USDAW - Freedom from Fear Campaign".
  17. ↑ Arthur Marsh and Victoria Ryan, Historical Directory of Trade Unions, vol.3, p.427
  18. ↑ Arthur Marsh and John B. Smethurst, Historical Directory of Trade Unions, vol.5, pp.184-185
  19. ↑ http://www.usdaw.org.uk/FFFReport2022
  20. 1 2 USDAW: 125 years strong. London: USDAW. 2016. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  21. ↑ "USDAW - Amy Murphy is elected the new President of Usdaw". www.usdaw.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-01-04.
  22. ↑ "USDAW - Jane Jones is elected the new President of Usdaw".
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