Simon Foster, Labour candidate for West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner said: “Our frontline shopworkers have made an outstanding contribution to providing us all with an essential service during these challenging times. They have demonstrated dedication to duty in often difficult circumstances. They deserve our utmost thanks and gratitude.

“It is essential our shopworkers are safe and secure. Employers must ensure the health and safety of staff. However, it is also important that customers stay calm, respect shop workers and comply with necessary hygiene requirements at all times.

“Our frontline shopworkers, as key workers, are entitled to protection, safety and security as a matter of priority. Those intimidating or targeting shop workers should be dealt with robustly. I am pleased to see this has been reflected in the emergency update to the West Midlands Police and Crime Plan.”

Gavin Dadley – Usdaw’s Midlands Divisional Officer says: “Violence, threats and abuse against shopworkers are regrettably nothing new, but we were shocked to have found that incidents have doubled during the Coronavirus Emergency. It is a disgrace that people working to keep food on the shelves for their local communities are being abused and assaulted for simply doing their job.

“Our communities need shops and the staff must be kept safe so they can stay open. So we very much welcome that Labour’s candidate for PCC in the west Midlands recognises and supports the heroic efforts our members are making.

“Usdaw continues to work with employers to improve health and safety for staff, particularly those dealing directly with the public. We also call on customers to stay calm, respect shopworkers and practise the necessary hygiene measures to help limit the spread of the virus. We all have to work together to get through this crisis.”

Voices from the West Midlands frontline:

Warwickshire: “Please, please can someone do something, the customers are so nasty and aggressive - constantly making rude remarks. It is mentally draining, so stressful and only a handful of customers are abiding by the 2m distance. I come home to my family and I want to just cry and sleep. I am trying to do right by customers but it is becoming increasingly difficult with the verbal abuse.”

Birmingham: “Very angry customers who thought it was ok to speak to me like rubbish. I had items of stock and baskets thrown at me when I made them aware of restrictions. The level of verbal abuse towards staff and other customers was something I had never seen in my time in retail.”

Northamptonshire: “Customer kicked the petrol station door open, when he got to the counter I asked who had upset him and  customer said f**k-off, don’t like you, hope you get ill and die”

Coventry: “It is mainly rudeness during this time. A lot of people enter the store annoyed having queued for a long time to get in and take it out on the staff. A lot of customers are still lovely and are thanking us.”

Walsall: “A customer called me a f***ing dumbass because we didn't have items in stock. I was called a faggot because I wouldn't let a customer take 15kg of pasta. I was threatened with a customer spitting in my face if I didn't get him an item. I was threatened with physical violence outside the shop by a customer I told was not following the 2m gap policy."

Staffordshire: “Shopping trolley pushed into me because there was no pasta on the shelf. It's not nice driving to a shift knowing this is what will happen or the aggression that you will receive. The language and names I have been called is really not what I expected when I applied for the job. I understand that these are extreme circumstances but we are all in them together.”

Dudley: “I had one customer say my bank balance must  be healthy due to the hours I’m working it’s a shame you will be dead within a month so you won’t be able to spend any of it. Was swore at due to restrictions on bread and a customer was sarcastic asking if there was any restrictions on Pepsi as there was on milk.”

Wolverhampton: “Customers refusing to listen. Refusing to maintain social distancing. Coming in groups. Families together shopping. Not following one way system. Not queuing safely. It's an absolute nightmare, you are being spoken to in a way that is now making colleagues cry.”

Herefordshire: “Customers can be very impatient, aggressive and argumentative at times. They don’t think they should wait for long, and often do not realise the 2 metre rule, therefore no regard to personal space.  I know colleagues who have been abused, and one even assaulted.”

Shropshire: “A few customers are quite aggressive over missing stock or enforcing of social distancing protocols. Throwing shopping down or saying I deserve a slap. Sworn at every day, called a f**king idiot and a c**t.”

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