Usdaw welcomes historic third term for Labour

Retail union Usdaw has warmly welcomed a historic third term for Labour and has promised to lobby the new government to boost rights for parents and carers.

Many of Usdaw’s 340,000 members have played an active role in supporting Labour candidates across the UK and union leaders will seek urgent meetings with new ministers as soon as possible to discuss how they intend to increase support for parents and carers.

“While it is very sad that many hard working Labour MPs have not held their seats let’s not forget this is a historic moment for the trade union movement,” said Usdaw General Secretary John Hannett. “For the first time in Labour’s 105 year history they have secured a third term in government so we will be looking to make sure increasing maternity and paternity rights, as well as boosting support for carers, is top of the political agenda over the next five years.”

“I’m delighted so many of our members made the effort to support some excellent Labour candidates across the country and I’m sure their efforts were a significant factor in holding some seats. We supported Labour because they lived up to their promise to create a national minimum wage which has made a massive difference to the living standards of our members and their families.”

Most of Usdaw’s group of MPs were re-elected and the union will be looking to them to help protect union members from attacks on their rights by the Tories and Lib Dems.

“We’ve examined the Tory and Lib Dem manifestos discovering that both opposition parties are anti-union and want to completely deregulate the retail sector meaning our members could be forced to work every day of the year including Christmas Day.”

“We also remember that both the Lib Dems and the Tories opposed the introduction of the minimum wage. Michael Howard said two million jobs would be lost when the minimum wage was introduced which proved to be totally false and Charles Kennedy was so indifferent to the needs of low paid workers that he couldn’t even be bothered to mention it in his manifesto.”

“We’ll work closely with Labour MPs to offer sensible proposals that will make the retail sector even more successful and make absolutely sure the efforts of our members are properly rewarded.”

Notes to Editors:

• Contacts for newsdesks: Usdaw’s Media Officer, Paul Clarke, can be contacted on 0161 224 2804 or at paul.clarke@usdaw.org.uk.

• Usdaw (the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK’s fifth biggest trade union, with over 340,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.

• More information and 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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