Santa Claus is coming to town …

... to protect Christmas Day for millions of shopworkers.

On Friday 15 October 2004 Santa Claus is coming to town and will be at Parliament Square and the Jubilee Room, Westminster between 8am to 11am.

From 8am: Around 10 members of shopworkers’ union Usdaw, who will all be dressed in Santa Claus outfits, will be at Parliament Square (opposite St Margaret’s church), with a large banner bearing the slogan “Usdaw says thanks for Protecting Christmas Day”. They will be joined by Kevan Jones, the Labour MP for Durham North, who is promoting the Christmas Day (Trading) Bill that is expected to complete its final stages in the Commons on Friday 15 October 2004.

From 9.30am:The festive group will then queue for entry to the House of Commons – via the St Steven’s Entrance – presenting an opportunity to photograph a line of 10 Santas as they queue to get in. Once inside the building, they are attending an Usdaw reception in the Jubilee Room with MPs to celebrate the event. The Christmas Day (Trading) Bill is a Private Member’s Bill. It will ban stores larger than 280 square metres from opening on Christmas Day. Current legislation only bans them from opening if 25 December falls on a Sunday. Shopworkers and their union Usdaw have long campaigned for this legislation, to stop workers being forced to work on this special day.

For information contact Political Officer Ruth Stoney or the Media and Communications Department on: 0161 224 2804/0161 249 2442/0161 249 2444. (Pictures of the event will be available on request via e-mail later in the day – contact arena@usdaw.org.uk).

Further background information on Usdaw's Protect Christmas Day campaign is available at the Santa Watch campaign section.

Notes to Editors:

• Usdaw (the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK’s fifth largest union, with over 338,000 members. Most Usdaw members are shopworkers, although the union does have many members in other trades including transport, distribution, call centres, home shopping, food manufacturing, dairy process, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

• All Usdaw news releases are available at our online Newsroom.

• Journalists can subscribe to receive Usdaw news releases via our online e-news service.

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© 2003 (USDAW) Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers
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