Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary says: “Labour offers working people genuine hope for real change. Their promise to end in-work poverty would be one of Labour’s greatest achievements; it is the scourge of modern society. The Government disgracefully failed to act on our ‘Time for Better Pay’ campaign, Labour has listened and will act.
“Insecure low-paid work is causing many families a great deal of hardship as they struggle to make ends meet and have no guaranteed income from week to week. So Labour’s £10 per hour for all workers, an end to zero-hour employment, contracts that reflect workers hours and scrapping the universally discredited Universal Credit are very welcome and will make a real difference to our members and millions of workers.
“Among promises on sorting out the NHS, housing, education and many other services that our members rely on; Labour has a plan to tackle the crisis on our high street. Retail is going through tremendous difficulties, resulting in many job losses and store closures.
“Labour has listened to Usdaw’s ‘Save our Shops’ campaign and is committed to developing a retail sector industrial strategy including a review of the business rates system to make it fairer for high street retailers.
“Our country is crying out for change, a different direction that will bring hope and prosperity. Labour is the party that will deliver a future that works for all. Labour has listened to our members concerns and set out a programme to address them. Usdaw is urging our members to vote Labour today.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest and the fastest growing trade union with over 410,000 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.
Usdaw’s ‘Time for Better Pay’ campaign: www.usdaw.org.uk/T4BP
Usdaw’s ‘Save Our Shops’ campaign: www.usdaw.org.uk/saveourshops
Usdaw’s industrial strategy for retail: www.usdaw.org.uk/retailstrategy
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter
@UsdawUnion