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As reported in the latest issueof Arena (Usdaws membersmagazine), at this years ADM,Usdaw General Secretary, JohnHannett, promised an extra

Area Organiser (AO) for eachof the Usdaws seven divisions.

During his speech arguing in

favour of the recent subsincrease, he promised that hewould advertise the jobs thefollowing Monday after ADMOne month later there is nosign of them still, no advertsfor vacancies for AOs haveappeared. Reps will rightlydemand to know why this isthe case.

Moreover, from the lack ofinformation about this then itseems likely that this ideawasn;t even discussed on theunions highest body outside ofconference, the ExecutiveCouncil that proposed theincrease.

The Activist believes that whenthe Executive proposeschanges to S1 (subs

increases), then they have aduty to provide informationregarding what such a subsincrease will be spent on.

How can Usdaw branchesdebate the merits of such arise when they only have halfthe picture - the monetary

increase - rather than a pictureof the finances necessary forour union.

Often when delegates at ADMpropose initiatives, then weare told we havent the money.Why is it one rule for Hannettand another for the rest of us.

We need a democraticaccountable union, where wethe members direct the

resources to where we need tofight to defend our interests.

It seems like every year that John Hannett makes the claim thatunder his leadership there are more Area Organisers thanbefore he started as General Secretary.

Well, lets see if the members get the back-up the are entitled tocertainly with the increase of members.

In 2002, the membership totalled 321,151 and in 2012 hadincreased to 425,363 giving the us a total increase of 104,212new members. There were 118 full-time officials working in the

divisions that means there were 2,722 members to everydivisional official.

In 2012 and with over 100,000 extra members, there areonly 111 officials in the divisions. There are now 3,832members to each official.

If we use the 2002 membership figure and the then ratio

of officials to members, there should be an extra 38officials already working in the divisions and not just theseven promised.

Wheres the AOs John?

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

the ActivistIssue 44

June 2013

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; and

Steve Gillan, POA General SecretarySee www.shopstewards.net for info

Usdaw calls itself The CampaigningUnion but wheres the support for

reps to effectively be that?

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Bulletin of Socialist Party members in USDAW


Whilst I wholeheartedly support what you are saying,the problem is that some Unions are becomingbusinesses. In my Union, Usdaw, all you hear isrecruitment, recruitment, recruitment isnt it aboutlooking after the members you already have?

The need to fight this coalition is important and ALLUnions should stand up and be counted includingUSDAW, a strong Union is an attractive one to join a

weak Union is seen as well weak.

But when we get shut of this lot who takes over?Labour? Thanks to the Unions who voted for him asleader Milliband is more of a damp squib than a RedEd. He has the charisma of a used match andpersonality to match. The Unions need to make thewet labour party get back to its roots and look afterthe working class of the country and become theLabour Party I joined and loved.

To all General Secs, someone once said that I amnot afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I amafraid of an army of sheep led by a lion. WHO ARELEADING US, LIONS OR SHEEP?

I am a Tesco worker and have been a member ofUsdaw for some time. I personally feel betrayed bythe union as it sides with Tesco time and time again.

All too often do I hear for the needs of businesswhen the union should be fighting for the needs ofits members. Allowing a company to tear upcontracted hours and turn workers lives upside downwith totally altered shift patterns defeats the point ofa contract. Rather than treating existing staff withcontempt and disrespect expecting us to do two jobsat once, they should adequately man their stores (onproper contracts! the new flexi contracts are aninsult. Another issue on which usdaw sold out totesco)

On the national strike issue I would be more thanwilling to stand side by side with other unions in

solidarity against an uncaring tory government. Goodluck getting usdaw to actually listen to its members. Idont hold out much hope.

Over the past year and a half, theActivist has been to the fore in raising

the need for a militant strategy in Usdaw

to fight for our members and the need tolink up with other unions in co-ordinated

action, a general strike, to force this

government and their cuts agenda out.

On 29th June the National ShopStewards Network (NSSN) will meet for

its 7th annual conference (details onpage 1). This will be an opportunity to

discuss with other union reps and

community activists the attacks facingworking class people and how to

respond.

It will also serve as a forum to discuss

where we are in the fight for the co-ordinated action we desperately need.

We urge Usdaw members to attend.

In a recent article for the Socialist,

NSSN chair Rob Williams commented

about Usdaws submission to the TUC

general council:

Usdaw's leadership... complain in their

contribution that union membership inthe private sector is insufficient for this

type of action.

Incredibly they claim: "Usdaw members

are concerned about pay and jobsecurity and would be very unlikely to

support a general strike." Not that the

Usdaw leadership is likely to askmembers' opinion. And remember this is

in a context of mass job losses in retail!

Actually Usdaw members don't live in a

bubble but are the husbands, wives,children, friends and neighbours of

public sector workers.

We've already seen over

the last year significantprivate sector disputesflare up all over the

country which indicatethat the sights and

sounds of public sector

workers fighting backhas again legitimisedthe idea that workers

c a n c h a l l e n g e

employers.

Who would doubt that mass strike

action, properly built for, wouldn'tappeal to low-paid and super-exploited

workers in the retail industry? Alreadywith 400,000 members, Usdaw could,

under these conditions, be filled out and

could realise its potential to play apivotal role in the massive

supermarkets.

Below we include two comments we

have received regarding previous articles

appearing in the Activist on this subject.

Come to the 7th NSSN Conference

Part of the 1,000 strong lobby of 2012 TUC in Brightonorganised by the NSSN to call for a general strike
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Around 100 of the Tesco driverssacked earlier this year and theirfamilies marched through Doncaster

on Saturday with their red Unite flagswaving.

They handed out leaflets, askingshoppers to boycott the store anddemanding that Tesco gives them their

jobs back.

They then handed out their "EverySacking Helps..." leaflets at the doorsand car park entrances of the Tescostore in Doncaster.

Senior steward Trev Cheetham said:"Tesco management betrayed the loyalworkforce, some with 20 years loyal

service, by throwing them to EddieStobarts".

This meant the drivers lost theirpension scheme and other benefitsand after one month at Stobarts theywere told that they were to bereplaced by other drivers on less payand worse conditions.

All this while Tesco made 3.8 billionin profit and paid their highest paid

director over 1.6million.

Trev added: "Manyhave still not foundnew jobs after beingthrown on the doleand are now livingon 70 a week ...We will continue theprotests!"

Steve Scholey, a driver and shopsteward with 12 years' servicecommented: "Tesco said one of thereasons they had carried out thisaction was because they were worriedabout CO2 emissions, but workerswere being bussed in from otherdepots and supplied by agencies tomeet the workload, so it was reallyabout getting cheap labour".

Sacked Tesco drivers on the march again

A friend who works in a local highstreet shop commented to meabout the number of peopledropping of CVs in a hope ofbeing offered some work and howdesperate and demoralised manylooked when they handed overthe form. She accepts their

applications and tells them themanager will let them know whena vacancy occurs. The managerthrows them in the bin.

According to the elitesgovernment, these are thescroungers of our society.

If things are bad now then it aboutto get worse. Low-paid retail jobs

are under threat. The Centre forRetail Research (CRR) reckonsthat over the next five years, the

number of UK retail stores willdrop from 281,930 to 220,000.Resulting in whopping job losesof over 316,000.

Even more of these CVs will findthere way into bins.

The problem is the fall inconsumer spending going to highstreet stores. It was 50% in 2000and is predicted to drop to 40.2%by next year, according again tothe CRR. The sales are going tothe online retail companies andwill reach 21.5% of all retail salesby 2018.

Of course many of these online

companies don't pay their shareof taxes. A good example of thisis Amazon UK who paid 2.4m in

corporate taxes last year on salesof 4.3bn, a rate of less than0.1%.

According to a parliamentarycommittee of MPs who areexamining this scandal of the lackof company taxation describedthe situation as a joke. Of coursethis is hot air, they wont reallychange anything but why action

now. This fiddle has been knownabout for decades, After all it isthe capitalist system and theironly responsibility is to make therich even richer.

Something must change. TheActivistadvocates that the largeretail companies both on the highstreet and online should be takeninto public ownership and with it

control and managed by workingpeople. Our responsibility wouldbe to improve life for all of us.

Letter - Farewell to retail jobs
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A day in the life of aPrimark employee

Recently we were given the chanceto fill out an employee survey toinform our bosses of ourexperiences in our time working atPrimark.

One question was along the linesof: 'Do you feel proud of workingfor Primark?' No.

No, I don't feel proud of workingsomewhere that makes obsceneprofits and yet pays me less than Ineed to pay rent.

No, I don't feel proud to work at aplace in which people younger thanme get paid even less despitedoing the same job.

No, I don't feel proud of working ina place that made me buy my ownuniform, structures my contract toavoid paying me overtime pay,doesn't make me feel a part of awelcoming, happy environment

despite telling me to be welcomingand happy to anyone who comesinto the store.

Like so many others at Primark, Ihad intended for this to be merelya temporary position, aspringboard to help propel me ontosomething more fulfilling, but thestress and anxiety that has built upsince my first day has felt like aweight holding me back.

I know I shouldn't feel stressedabout a job that means so little butno one wants to feel like the effortthey put in is meaningless and Iwork hard at a thankless job.

The store is organised into variousself-explanatory departments andyet if one person is away from onedepartment, whether sick or on

organised holiday, it is often thecase that the rest of the workers inthe department have to pick up theslack without cover to help.

Sometimes I have to essentially dothe work of two people. It's badenough being forced to do thework of one person in Primark.

I utilised the survey to vent some

of my frustrations, assuming thatnone of my anger would be takeninto account and no change would

come from it.

The survey itself consisted ofsimple multiple choice questionsbut the comments section at theend allowed us a chance to expressour issues. I probably wrote themost that I've written since myuniversity dissertation!

I told them of my irritation that Irequested more hours to help withmy finances and yet they insteaddecided to hire more workers ontemporary, part-time contracts.

I wrote about how it was ridiculousthat a store that makes the profitsit does can't give its employees a

discount beyond the two weeksbefore Christmas.

Simply put, I don't think that thoseworking in Primark get the respector reward that they deserve.

I don't live in the hellish conditionsof those who make the clothes Iend up selling, but Primark doesjust as much to make my working

experience a monstrous hell of myown.

Many Usdaw members will havebeen horrified by the tragic collapseof the Rani Plaza building whichhoused textile workers who produceclothing for numerous high streetcompanies including Primark.

The disaster is a result of theexporting of textile productionaround the world to lower wageeconomies to boost the profits of thebosses. As wages were cut, ruthlessbosses tried to cut other costs,including on issues of health andsafety as the disaster has evidenced.

A recent TUC document What PriceCheap Clothing? opposes theseconditions and argues that they do

not need to be tolerated to maintaincheap clothing. The briefing pointsout that only 2p of a n item ofclothing sold for 6 would go to theworker who made it. The resourcesare clearly there to increase wages(the TUC suggests 1000%).

Yet the Activist cannot we agree withthe TUCs argument that clothingprices should increase to pay forthis. As the report states, companieshave massively their profits byexploiting these workers. We saythey should pay from their profits.

For example Primarks profits wentup by 24% in the last year.

Moreover its not just workers inBangladesh and other low wageeconomies who are exploited.

Although on a different scale,workers in Primark stores dont evenget paid a living wage either.

Whos to Blame for Rani Plaza catastrophe?

Workfare protestors in Primark
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On 14 May, 1,100 employees ofAmazon Deutschland came out ona one-day strike at three out ofseven sites in Germany.

The strikers demanded thatAmazon accepts and applies theconditions that exist elsewhere inthe German retail and mail ordersector which were agreed betweenthe employers federation and theVer.di union. According to theGerman service sector unionVer.di, if Amazon paid these union-agreed rates Amazon workers

would receive about 9,000 eurosmore a year through higher hourlyrates, incremental payments,holiday and Christmas pay.

One outraged worker explained:"For 5 years Amazon had not paida single wage increase here in BadHersfeld, adding that it was onlywhen Ver.di came and we beganto organise, did we see any pay

increases.

Strike leader Heiner Reimann toldreporters: Amazon bases its paystructure on earning levels in aregion and then adds 3 cents soits paying above the localaverage.

Significantly, Amazon invariablylocates in less affluent, structurally

weak regions and then mops up allthe labour - from jobless people onHartz IV (drastically reducedbenefits paid after 12 monthsunemployment) to older people onthe cusp of pension age.

A recent television documentaryshowed how Amazon has startedhiring workers from crisis hitcountries like Spain. As can beexpected, these people are pleasedto have found any work and thegovernment Labour Office (jobcentre) not only facilitates

recruitment, butpays towardsthe costs. Thefact that most

workers areemployed ontemporarycontracts, someof which areextended over aperiod of morethan two years,makes peoplefeel veryinsecure. Some

of the strikersreported that they had even heardof one day employment contracts.

This makes the decision to go onstrike all the more remarkable,97.6% of union members atAmazon voted to strike. Theyturned out to stand defiantly at thegates, all kitted out in the unionstypical strike gear: Ver.di high-

visibility jacket, whistle, flag andan umbrella.

Low pay is not the only thing onthe list of workers grievances;Amazon staff also cite thedisrespectful, harsh treatmentmeted out by management andpoor working conditions. Kilometre-long aisles (stock pickers will walk25 km on an average day), and thelack of proper air-conditioning,mean that workers often pass outon hot days. Then theres theconstant supervision: anyonepausing for too long will beinstructed via hand scanner toresume work.

The long distances walked andtime-consuming waits at thesecurity checks all encroach onstaff break times. Earlier this yearAmazon had to sack HESS, aprivate security company whosename was an allusion to Adolf

Hitlers deputy, it used to policethe hostels and hotels where itsforeign workers lived after it wasexposed on television how thesesecurity personnel harassed themigrant workers while dressed inThor Steinar clothing associatedwith the German far right.

Additionally some other factors

have dented Amazons reputation,not least the millions of subsidiesthat it has received from Germantaxpayers at the same as it wassetting up a holding company inLuxemburg and paying tax at lowrates in the Netherlands.

The Amazons are nowdemanding more respect andbetter working conditions fromtheir employer. The first day ofstrike action was seen as arehearsal for a full-scale strikewhich could last for months. Theunion ver.di is striving to build abase and force concessions frommarket leader Amazon, failurewould set a bad precedent.



Amazon workers in Germany strike over pay and conditions

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Recently we have seen the

results of Tesco's annual pay

review. After negotiations

between Tesco and Usdawthere will be a 2% increase on

the core award, meaning that

an established general worker

in Tesco will earn 7.28 per

hour across all formats from the

30th June.

Despite this being keeping pace

with last year's increase, at a

time when Tesco have had poor

results, the increase is still

below inflation. The pay review

also inc luded improved

maternity pay and leave and an

increase in the cap on the

amount of discount Tesco

w o r k e r s r e c e i v e .

Whilst these increases are morethan some other Usdaw

organised supermarkets, suchas Morrisons and the Co-op(reflecting Usdaw's larger

membership in Tesco) it stillfalls short of a living wage,which is calculated at 7.45outside of London. Tesco ofcourse could afford to pay this,despite the current economicclimate, it would cost only 2%of turnover to do so.

Following a proposition passedat this years ADM, Usdaw arenow committed to campaigningfor and negotiating withemployers to implement a livingwage, this should now be theminimum demand that Usdawtake to negotiations with Tescoand other companies next yearto ensure. Pressure must beapplied to officials andnegotiating bodies to follow

through on this.

In companies such as

Morrisons, then ballots takeplace on the results of thenegotiations each year. Byvoting no to below inflation payrises workers can put pressureon thei r company andnegotiators to fight for more.Tesco workers deserve thesame option and we need tofight to see such a ballotreturned to Tesco workers.



Tesco Pay Review: Inching Closer to a Living Wage?

This image produced for a campaignabout workfare is as true for the situa-tion facing Tesco staff who still arent

paid a living wage

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