Speaking to Congress Dave McCrossen – Usdaw Deputy General Secretary said: “Over the last 40 years there has been a massive drop in the number of people covered by collective bargaining, as a direct result we have seen the growth of in-work poverty.
 
“We need to see the reach of collective bargaining extended so it covers every worker. We need collective bargaining broadened so it covers everyone working in a sector. We also need to make it far easier for unions to get access to a workforce, so that all workers can hear the case for why it makes sense to join a trade union.
 
“Trade unions should have a right to access workplaces and speak to the staff. Working people should have a right to hear about trade unions. This is not a question of forcing people to join, but giving them the opportunity to have an open and honest conversation.
 
“We also need to make it easier for unions to become the recognised trade union in a workplace. The current rules, requiring unions to have 10% membership before lodging a claim for statutory recognition makes it far too difficult for working people to get a truly independent voice. We need those thresholds to be reviewed and reduced.
 
“We want workers to have a real choice over whether to be represented by a union.
Usdaw believes the membership thresholds to trigger a ballot on trade union recognition should be reduced to 2% of the workforce or a minimum of 500 members in bigger workplaces.  These lower thresholds would allow more workers a real choice through a ballot on whether a union is to be recognised in their workplace.
 
“Trade unions need access to the workplace so workers can decide for themselves whether to join and we need the statutory recognition thresholds to be reduced so more workplaces can have a choice through a ballot on whether they want a trade union recognised in their workplace.”
 
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