activist 43: post adm special

7/30/2019 Activist 43: Post ADM special

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This years USDAW AnnualDelegate Meeting was held asever in Blackpools wintergardens and was attended byover 750 delegates andofficials and representing over385,000 of the unions 425,000

members.

The leadership set out theirstall early with the opening of

ADM featuring speaker afterspeaker telling us it will all getbetter under Labour. As a firsttime delegate I was surprisedat the level of sycophancy ondisplay from the top table andthe uncritical support of theLabour party.

There was a short video thathighlighted some of the realissues affecting our members,s u c h a s 2 0 % y o u t hunemployment and cuts to taxcredits. While I support the taxcredit system, it allowsemployers to pay poverty

wages while the shareholdersenjoy record profits. As a trade

union we should be critical ofthe need for tax credits withinthe retail sector as ouremployers have multi billionpound turnovers, and shouldnot be hailing them as theanswer to low pay.

The ma jo r i t y o f t hepropositions submitted to thisyears ADM were on issues

that had the genera lagreement of the room, with

only four going to cardvote and the E.Crecommendation wasonly overturned twice.

The two debates thatreally stood out were theEconomy and Finance

Debate and the HousingDebate. In the Economyand finance debate

c o n f e r e n c e p a s s e d aproposition calling for amanifesto commitment fromLabour to stop corporate taxavoidance and another callingon the union to build acampaign for the living wage.

There were suggestions fromthe rostrum of what such acampaign could look like with

ideas put forward such as localdemonstrations which couldraise the profile of the unionamongst young workers andalso the need for delegates tobuild the campaign throughoutthe union. Now that a livingwage is Usdaw policynegotiators should be pressingall employers to pay a living

wage as a minimum and theactivist would also call fornegotiators within companies

Leadership Back Austerity-Lite Ed:

We Need Fighting Policies Instead

Find out more: usdawactivist.wordpress.com / [email protected] / Facebook: Usdaw Activist

the ActivistIssue 43

Post-ADM Special

Bulletin of Socialist Party members in

7th annual conference takes place onSaturday 9th June, Camden Centre, 38

Bidborough St, London - 11am-4pmSpeakers include:

Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary;

Billy Heyes, CWU General Secretary; andSteve Gillan, POA General Secretary

See www.shopstewards.net for info

The Activist has been championing pushing Usdaws youth structuresoutwards, thus it was welcome to see the new Youth banner on displayat ADM, alongside new Know Your Rights At Work booklets.


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Bulletin of Socialist Party members in USDAW


to inform members fully on theprogress towards this targetand to launch a consultationbefore any pay deal isaccepted.

The housing debate raisedsome interesting issues andwhile it wasnt mentionedexplicitly in any of thepropositions the bedroom taxfeatured heavily. The speakersfrom the rostrum slammed thisattack on the unemployed andlow paid and called for rent

caps, social housing to be builtand the need for long termsecure tenancies. Paddy Lillisagreed from the top tablesaying that decent housing wasa basic human right.

During the Employment rightsdebate there was a contributionfrom one of the workers

affected by the distributioncentre closure at Weybridge.He gave a moving and detailedaccount of what it was like tohave your job under threat, justto degrade terms andconditions. He summed up bysaying that the workers wereultimately to blame and thatthey sold their jobs for

enhanced redundancy. Regularreaders of the Activist will knowthat we advocated for afighting strategy to be putforward and a campaign to bebuilt in stores and with otherunions within distribution todefend against this wholesaleattack on terms and conditions.

In his reply John Hannett said

the weakness of the TUC wasthe inability of the unions to be

on the samepage, but it isUsdaw that isi n c r e a s i n g l yf inding i tsel f isolated withinthe TUC. Withunions such asPCS and RMTleading the wayand unite andunison willing toenter disputes indefence of their membersinterests, the partnership

strategy of USDAW is the onethat is off the page.

While Socialist Party activistshad a strong presence, sellingover 60 copies of the socialistand distributing hundreds ofcopies of the ADM specialedition of the Activist, the lackof a co-ordinated broad left

intervention was evident. Thelack of a broad left banner onthe conference floor stood outwhen a frustrated delegatet r i e d t o s h o e h o r nnationalisation and an attack onthe right wing leadership withinUsdaw and the Labour partyinto a debate about a youthacademy. Had there been a co-

ordinated and sustained broadleft intervention into theconference, it would have actedas a beacon for those delegatesdis-satisfied with the prolongedLabour rally on offer from theleadership.

Our delegates had attended abroad left meeting on the eveof the conference but there

was little co-ordination on theconference floor. We would

encourage the building of anactive broad left faction within

the union in order tocounterpoise the strategy putforward by the leadership. Thisw o u l d r e q u i r e s o m eo r g a n i s a t i o n a n d t h edistribution of media supportinga broad left position within theunion, and also discussionbetween broad left supporterson propositions to be put

forward in order to raise thel e v e l o f d e b a t e a n dconsciousness within the ADMitself.

Some of the more controversial

propositions such as lobbying

to pay benefits with vouchers

and another attacking public

s e c t o r p en s i o n s we r e

withdrawn, but these would

have provided an opportunity

for the left within the union to

oppose and put forward the

reasons why we should be

supporting the wider working

class.

Supporters of the Activist will

be back next year hoping todevelop such a fight back.


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I was a delegate at Usdawconference in Blackpool last

week at which Ed Miliband wasa guest speaker. Whilst hereceived a standing ovation,however I stayed firmly satdown and I wasn't the onlyone. This wasn't because theleader of the Labour partydidn't sound good, it wouldbe disingenuous to sayotherwise as he delivered a

slick, confident, Obama-esquespeech during which he seemedat ease and played to the left.However he actually proposedand committed to very little.

He proposed reintroducing the10p tax rate paid for by amansion tax, repealing thehealth and social care act and

introducing a living wage whichI welcome but he suggestedthis last commitment can beachieved by giving incentivesand tax breaks to companiesthat implement. Well, as adelegate stated in the LivingWage debate, we shouldn't berewarding companies just forgiving us what we deserve!

A question and answer session

took place after his mainspeech with speakers from the

floor. Some of the questionswere rather tame but somegood ones were asked too suchas being asked about reversingthe retirement age increase. Hisanswer was that 'over time wewill have to work longer'!

When asked 'Would voting forLabour in council elections

make any difference?', he gavea politicians answer and didn'tcommit to anything as he triedto avoid the fact that Labourcouncils have done and willcontinue to implement Torycuts instead of resisting them inthe manner of Liverpool councilin the 1980s for example. Healso of course failed to commit

a future Labour government toreversing Con-Dem cuts,repealing the Bedroom Tax ordoing anything about the anti-trade union laws.

Questions like, are Labour fitfor purpose? Do they pose analternative? Do they representworking class people and tradeunionists? These are questionsbeing asked by Usdaw activists

and members around thec o u n t r y a n d t h e y

are questions which Usdaw'sleadership will have to confrontin the future as Labour areexposed as not being too muchdifferent from the currentadherents to austerity we havein power right now. Milibandshowed his true colours whenhaving a war of words recentlywith Unite general secretary

Len Mcluskey who was rightwhen he categorised Laboursapproach as austerity-lite.

Labour offers nothing toworking people, trade unionsincluding Usdaw shoulddisaffiliate from Labour. Otherunions such as the RMT andPCS have already realised this

and are recognised as the twomost fighting unions in Britain.These unions in particular arerallying around the TradeUnionist and Socialist Coalitionwhich is growing steadily as anan t i - a u s t e r i t y , wo r k i n gclass alternative and TUSC isthe step towards the new massworkers party we so urgentlyneed!

Ed Miliband - Showy But No Substance

S1 - Leaderships Undemocratic Manoeuvres On Show

Perhaps the main debate thatUsdaws leadership wereworried about going out of theircontrol was the debate on S1.

As a union of mostly low-paidworkers, subs contributions

going up is always a worry.

At last years ADM no rise in

subscriptions was proposed -to show solidarity with themembership in tough economictimes. Thus, many branchesand members would have beensurprised to see the unions

leadership plump for a high 7pa week contribution rise forthose on Scale A at a time

when the economy is no betterthan last year. As one delegateaptly put it double-diprecession, double subs rise.

As we commented prior to

ADM, this had been donewithout explaining what thisrise was to pay for apart from


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vague (albeit real) notions ofr i s i ng i n f l a t i on , new lyintroduced charges for tribunalsand other increased costs.

The proposed subs increaseswould have brought in an extra1m+ to the union a year, yeteven without this increase theunion had already added 1 toits surplus from the previousyear.

Just like we supposed, theunion leadership also feareddelegates voting for theamendments from Sussex No.1

branch proposing smallerincreases.

Thus in a complete lyundemocratic fashion, John

Hannett, dangled, like a dodgysecond-hand car salesman, thesweetener of an extra areaorganiser in each division if theproposition was voted throughunamended.

We say this is undemocratic asto our knowledge this wasnever discussed on theExecutive Committee who areactually responsible for

proposing S1!

We have to ask why, atsupposedly the sovereign bodyof the union, ADM, are we not

provided with a budget for theunion for the following year, sowe can make our minds up asto the true financial needs andpriorities for the union on facts,not showmanship.

Next year is a rule change year,and we urge branches tosubmit propositions that bringin democratic checks on ourleadership.

Usdaw leaders support a pittancewage increase for members

The new rates for the NMW(National Minimum Wage) havejust been released. For adults it

will rise by 12p in October creatinga new hourly rate of 6.31. Therate for 18-to-20-year-olds will goup by 5p to 5.03. The rate forapprentices will rise by 3p to 2.68an hour.

Incredibly, Usdaw states in itspress release that it backs thispittance of an increase in theNMW. Inflation according to thepress release is (RPI) 3.2% AND

(CPI) 2.8% but the new rise in theNMW is only 1.9%.

For many of our membersscrapping-by on this poverty wageor just above, this will meanfurther cuts in their livingstandards.

Usdaws General Secretary serveso n t h e L P C ( L o w P a yCommission) and he believes thatthe LPC works well. We shouldask works well for WHOM?

Certainly for big business whomake massive profits.

Life as Usdaw's GeneralSecretary

Usadw's general secretary, JohnHammett was appointed aCommissioner on the LPC in2007. Back in 2007, the minimumwage for an adult was 5.52 andcurrently it is 6.19. Therefore theNMW has increased by 67p overfive years.

Over the five years, a member onthe NMW working a 40 hour weekhas seen their weekly wageincrease by a miserly 26.80 andthey will now earn an extra1,393.60 over the year.

Over a five year period, In 2007,Arena published Usdaw's generalsecretary's income from the unionat 108,769 and by 2012 Arena

reported his income increased to130,182 - an increase of 21,413over five years. Our general

secretary earns over 10 times theNMW.

The Ac t i v i s t argues our representatives cannot understandthe problems faced by memberswhen they live a privileged lifestyle.

When Robbie Segal stood forUsdaw General Secretary in 2008,she campaigned for a GeneralSecretary on a workers wage


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On Wednesday 10th April,Morrisons announced 689 job

losses across its 490 stores as aresult of introducing newtechnology into cash offices.Whilst there is supposed to bea four week consultation overthese jobs, as an Usdawspokesperson quoted by theBBC admitted The union ishopeful that all staff who wantto remain with the company

will be found alternative roles.ie that the jobs had been cutand workers would have totake up other existingvacancies.

The Activist is not opposed tothe introduction of newtechnology devised to make thelives of retail workers more

easy and their tasks forefficient. However, we have toquestion why, in supermarketsthat are already chronicallyunderstaffed, are jobs being

phased out instead of usingthat persons now freed up time

to relieve pressures elsewhere.The same could be said aboutthe introduction of self-scancheckouts into allsupermarkets.

Analysts have commented thatMorrisons profits dropped by7% last year, but they stillmade 879m in profit last year,

or 7,000 per employee. Assomeone who earned less than10000 a year working 35hours a week for Morrisons,then the company kept notmuch under half of the value Icreated each year through mywork. And this is beforementioning the tens ofthousands of part-time

employees who work muchfewer hours each week.Morrisons like many other bigretail companies is making vastswathes of cash at our

expense, the 165 jobs lots lastyear at Morrisons Head Officein Bradford were so that theycould transfer them to acompany based in low-wageIndia.

The reality is that Morrisonsand other retail companiescould afford to concede a livingwage, full-time jobs for thosewho want them and decentstaffing levels in stores ifenough pressure was put onthem by Usdaw. This should bepart of an organised campaignacross retail, with rallies for a

living wage organised in majortowns and cities across the UKwith other union representinglow paid workers.

Defend Jobs at Morrisons

activist 43: post adm special

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