Usdaw is particularly pleased that the Party has made significant commitments on issues that the union has long called for in its ‘New Deal’, ‘Freedom from Fear’ and ‘Save our Shops’ campaigns:
- A plan to make work pay with a new deal for working people that will end poverty pay and tackle insecure employment that holds so many people back.
- Tackling retail crime with a protection of shop workers’ law, more uniformed police, town centre banning orders for repeat offenders and an end to the £200 threshold for prosecuting shoplifting.
- Transforming our high streets to tackle the retail crisis by reforming business tax, investing in town centres and supporting small independent retailers.
Paddy Lillis – Usdaw general secretary says: “Keir Starmer has today set out a vision and a plan that will deliver the much-needed change that our members desperately need. We can only achieve that change by voting for it.
“After years of Tory chaos and attacks on workers’ rights, Labour’s plan to make work pay includes transformative policies to turn the minimum wage into a genuine living wage, remove discriminatory age bands and deliver new rights to make work more secure.
“The Government’s dither and delay on retail crime has left thousands of shop workers needlessly suffering physical and mental injury. In stark contrast, Labour is committed to deliver a much-needed protection of shop workers’ law; end the perverse £200 threshold for prosecuting shoplifters, which has effectively become an open invitation to retail criminals; and provide more uniformed officers patrolling shopping areas along with town centre banning orders for repeat offenders.
“The scale of the challenge the retail industry faces is huge. With very high numbers of job losses and store closures that are scarring our high streets and communities, there are substantial issues that need to be addressed. Labour in government will deliver the much-needed and long overdue help the retail industry needs, with action on business rates and support for our struggling high streets.
“Only Labour is committed to deliver the better jobs retail workers need and deserve, while securing the future viability of the industry for the benefit of customers, workers, communities and our economy. Usdaw fully endorses the Labour manifesto and we are urging our members to vote Labour on 4 July.”
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 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 www.usdaw.org.uk
Change - Labour manifesto 2024: https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Labour-Party-manifesto-2024.pdf
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion