Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary says: “The scale of job losses across the retail industry is accelerating as the high street continues to struggle to recover from the impact of the coronavirus emergency. The Prime Minister’s so called ‘new deal’ fails to address the deep concerns of many shopworkers about their future job security. We welcome Keir Starmer’s focus on jobs.
 
“What the retail industry needs is a tripartite approach of unions, employers and government working together to develop a recovery plan. We have long called for an industrial strategy for retail to help a sector that was already struggling before the coronavirus emergency. The Government needs to level the playing field on taxation between online and the high street, reform business rates that are strangling so many businesses, as well as enable councils to breathe new life into town centres and make them community hubs.
 
“We have a choice here. Do we want to see the high street go to the wall, or do we want to save it? Retail is an important feature of our towns and cities, it employs three million people and we need a stimulus package to save the industry.”
 
Notes for editors:
 
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with over 400,000 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