Respect for Shopworkers Day - Wednesday 12 July

I’m delighted to say our fourth Respect for Shopworkers Day was a massive success in every division as Usdaw members set up street stalls reminding shoppers that physical and verbal abuse of retail staff will not be tolerated.

The theme on July 12th was Usdaw United to give abuse the red card. I felt that giving the campaign a football theme would make it eye catching and memorable so the serious message behind Respect Day would get across to those shoppers who lose control in stores.

Our serious message was that a staggering 95% of our members have been verbally abused at some point in their working life and we were shocked to find that half a million retail workers suffer abuse from the public every day.

This year we attracted a huge amount of media attention for Respect Day which is certainly becoming something of a fixture in the diaries of newspapers and radio stations. I did a number of national radio interviews and the presenters seemed genuinely shocked that verbal abuse of our members has shot up 35% in one year.

It was also pleasing that we attracted a huge amount of interest from local radio stations and newspapers which is part of our ongoing strategy to make sure the media outlets that serve your communities cover this issue.

On Respect Day I chaired a meeting at Westminster where a number of Usdaw members spoke to MPs about their own experiences of verbal abuse and how soul destroying it can be when you become verbal punchbag for irate customers. I think the MPs who attended were shocked at just how common verbal abuse is in the retail sector and it is always useful to remind sympathetic politicians that abuse in shops needs to be tackled.

More than 40 Labour MPs joined us on College Green for a photo opportunity where they were entertained by two ball jugglers from the Urban Freestylers team - see picture - who amazed us with their footballing skills. The MPs were certainly impressed and will go away remembering the event as well as the message we are trying to get across.

But it is in the divisions where we really get the message out to shoppers as thousands of credit card sized red cards were handed out reminding them that shops are a zero tolerance zone for abusive customers. We hope that shoppers will slip them into their wallets or purses and as they rummage for their store cards will see the card reminding them to control their behaviour.

I was impressed with the enthusiasm our activists displayed running the street stalls so thanks for your efforts as we begin the long battle to stop abuse of Usdaw members in their workplaces.

John Hannett
General Secretary

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