Tony Doonan – Usdaw regional secretary for Scotland says: “We are delighted to support Joe Fagan for the leader of Scottish Labour. He has a proven track record of leadership at South Lanarkshire Council and offers a fresh start for Labour in the Scottish Parliament, after very disappointing results at this year’s election.
“Usdaw is looking to Scottish Labour to substantially challenge the SNP on a whole range of issues, not least their failures on retail crime. Despite having the first protection of workers law in the UK, retail crime in Scotland is rocketing, with a 19% increase in theft from shops last year and having doubled since the pandemic. At the same time, England, Wales and Northern Ireland are seeing reductions. This cannot go on; retail workers deserve to be respected and properly protected.
“We welcome Joe Fagan’s understanding of people’s worries about paying the rent, long waiting lists, jobs and the state of the places they call home. He is committed to rooting Labour in Scotland’s places again: homes built at the scale the emergency demands, good work close to home and power sitting closer to the people it affects. We urge Labour members and affiliated supporters to vote for that in the forthcoming election for leader of Scottish Labour.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions in the TUC and the UK's fifth biggest with around 370,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also represents many workers in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades www.usdaw.org.uk
For Usdaw press releases visit: www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Bluesky @usdawunion.bsky.social and Twitter/X @UsdawUnion