We use cookies to ensure that we can give you the best user experience. By continuing to use our website you are consenting to their use. Find out more.

What language do you need?

ICTU Biennial Conference: Usdaw calls for action to 'save our shops' in the face of a retail crisis

Date: 01 July 2019 Shopworkers’ trade union is raising the retail crisis at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Biennial Delegate Conference, which starts tomorrow in Dublin.
Retail is Ireland’s largest industry and private sector employer, with 280,000 jobs accounting for 14% of total employment.  In Northern Ireland, the retail sector provides a living to around 70,000 people. Research revealed staggering job losses across the high street in Ireland in 2018, with over 20,000 jobs axed in the first three months of the year.
 
Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary says: “Over the past 12 months, the retail sector has been hit by more shop closures than ever and consumer confidence has still not fully recovered from the impact of the financial crisis, as customers continue to cut back on discretionary spending.  These factors are compounded as traditional bricks-and-mortar shops are facing increasing competition from online retailers.
 
“Retail workers have long been undervalued as contributors to the economies of the Republic and Northern Ireland and action needs to be taken to safeguard the future of retail jobs. There is a clear link between instability on the high street and the reduction in retail employment.
 
“We need a clear and coherent strategy for retail, to address the worries and concerns of shopworkers and our members. We hope Usdaw’s retail strategy will
be a catalyst for a combined and concerted effort to tackle the growing retail crisis and save our shops.”
 
Usdaw is calling on the ICTU to campaign for:
  • Urgent investigation and action from the respective governments to develop an industrial strategy for retail, with focus on levelling the playing field for the high street and online retailers.
  • Local governance to introduce measures focussed on increasing footfall in town centres.
  • A robust strategy on how to deal with the short and long-term impact of automation on key sectors such as retail.  This must include significant investment in skills for retail workers to help tackle the challenges of automation.
Usdaw’s ‘Save Our Shops’ campaign promotes our industrial strategy for retail, which proposes detailed and evidence led policies, centred on three key areas:
  • Economy and community - changing the economic framework on everything from car parking to rates, rents and reforming the tax system to create a level playing field between online and ‘bricks and mortar’ retailers.
  • People and productivity - improving productivity by addressing low pay and insecure work, while giving staff a say in the future of the business they work for and on the introduction of new technology.
  • Challenging Perceptions: Retail jobs are real jobs - Seeking a greater focus from Government on the retail industry and ensuring shopworkers are valued.
Usdaw’s industrial strategy for retail: www.usdaw.org.uk/retailstrategy
 
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.
                                 
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion

Share this page

Free prize draw

Enter our free prize draw to win a £100 Love2Shop Gift Voucher courtesy of Usdaw Protect.

The official website of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers