John Hannett stands up for abused shopworkers on GMTV

Usdaw General Secretary John Hannett appeared on GMTV today to blast allegations that shop staff were lazy and to stand up for the thousands of retail staff verbally and physically abused every working day.

His appearance on Britain’s most popular breakfast news show was in response to allegations by former Tory minister Edwina Currie that she had been badly served in a Mothercare store.

Thousands of GMTV viewers and retail workers contacted the show to remind viewers that physical and verbal abuse was widespread in the retail industry so programme producers invited the General Secretary onto the show to put forward the union’s view.

“There’s no doubt that appearing on high profile programmes like GMTV is the perfect platform for me to remind millions of viewers that shop staff have a right to be respected and not abused,” says John Hannnett. “I made the point that our Freedom From Fear campaign has done much to reduce the torrent of abuse our members suffer but we still have much work to do.

“I was able to make the central point that respect is a two-way process and that if shoppers show respect to shopworkers then they will get it back. The issues were highlighted by shop staff who rang in with their personal experiences of horrific abuse reminding viewers of how hard life can be on the frontline and that so many GMTV viewers rang in to stick up for hard working retail staff who do a good job day after day.

“It’s vital that the voice of Usdaw members is heard when shopworkers are wrongly attacked for not doing a good job in stores across the UK and I was able to argue that we need to look at staffing levels to make sure there is enough staff to properly deal with customer needs and better training for staff to deal with the minority of violent or abusive customers.

“Usdaw members can rest assured we will continue to put Freedom From Fear at the heart of our campaigning strategy and that we use platforms like GMTV to remind customers that they also have a responsibility to make sure we can achieve a harmonious shopping experience for staff and shoppers alike.”

For more information visit: www.usdaw.org.uk/campaigns/freedom_from_fear/

Notes to Editors:

• Contacts for newsdesks: Usdaw’s Media Officer, Paul Clarke, can be contacted on 0161 249 2469 or e-mail 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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