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Low-paid workers need a Labour Government to give them dignity and decency in work says Usdaw

Date: 26 September 2016 Shopworkers’ trade union leader John Hannett has challenged the Labour leadership to build on Labour’s record in Government, make the party look and sound like a credible government in waiting and deliver a better deal for working people.

Speaking in today’s economic debate at Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, John Hannett – Usdaw General Secretary said: “The lives of too many working people are blighted by poverty. Six million people paid less than the Living Wage and even more workers with not enough hours of work to get by: 1.7 million on zero-hour contracts; 5.4 million under-employed. Workers working as hard as they can with no security. No security of hours and certainly no security of income.

“Theresa May moved into Number 10, promising to be a Tory Prime Minister who would ‘fight against the injustice of poverty’; vowing to help those who are ‘just managing’; promising that her Government ‘will be driven, not by the interests of the privileged’ but by ordinary people. Did she mean it? Why hasn’t she silenced those calling for the National Living Wage to be scrapped?

“Under a Labour government people will have jobs that they can live on; an economy that delivers for everyone; a fairer society for us all to enjoy. However, we will not deliver the Labour victory that working people so desperately need if you rubbish your record in government. Opposition is a cold place. You can have all the moral arguments you want, you can have all the principles and all the values but you can't put them in action if you do not win.”

Notes for Editors:

Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fourth biggest and the fastest growing trade union with over 430,000 members. Membership has increased by more than 17% in the last five years and by nearly a third in the last decade. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the Union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.

For Usdaw press releases visit: www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion

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The official website of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers