Usdaw national officer Dave Gill said: “It is disappointing that rumours of job losses were leaked to the press before the company spoke to their staff. This is deeply unsettling for thousands of M&S workers who have been working tirelessly throughout the pandemic.

It is important that staff are treated with dignity and respect by being properly consulted on the future of their jobs and they need to be represented by an independent trade union.

“We again urge M&S management to abandon their long-held resistance to allowing Usdaw to represent the staff. It is simply unjust that the company has made the decision not to engage with a trade union. The staff are telling us they want Usdaw to represent them, it should be their choice.”


Notes for editors:
 
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with over 400,000 members. Membership has increased by more than one-third over the last couple of decades. 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: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion