Over 1,000 delegates, visitors and officials from across the UK will be attending to debate and vote on propositions from lay-member branches and statements from Usdaw’s National Executive Council on key issues including:
- Cost of living crisis and Usdaw’s ‘New Deal for Workers’ campaign
- Tackling racism in the workplace
- Technology and automation - shaping the future of work
- Health and safety at work
- A Labour Government that will deliver for our members
- Workers’ wages and conditions of employment
Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary says: "Our Annual Delegate Meeting is effectively the union’s parliament and provides members with the opportunity to raise their issues of concern and make our policy. We have a packed agenda and it is clear that members are very concerned about the cost of living crisis and a Conservative government that is continually failing to help the lowest paid workers make ends meet.
“Usdaw members welcomed the key worker status as they delivered essential services throughout the pandemic, but that respect and appreciation must not now fade into the background. We need a New Deal for Workers: a significant increase in minimum wage rates, an end to insecure employment, respect for shopworkers and action to ensure that retail jobs are no longer underpaid and undervalued.
“The Prime Minister promised to ‘build back better’, but regrettably it seems to be more like ‘business as usual’. As the cost of living crisis rages, with RPI at its highest rate in over 30 years, the Government has simply failed to understand the scale of the challenge faced by millions of workers across the country.
“We look forward to a lively and informed debate on the core issues affecting the lives of working people and their families."
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with around 360,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades.
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter
@UsdawUnion