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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

Retail Therapy

by New Worker correspondent

As the January sales are winding down it is a suitable time to look at the retail trade, and in particular some of the issues confronting those who work in it.

A walk down any high street or through the more modern shopping mall demonstrates that the trade is not in good shape. The most common name for shops seems to be “To Let” and the only wares they sell are padlocks and window shutters. In this correspondent’s home town many shops have fled the town centre and move around different out-of-town retail parks every few years.

Needless to say, not all retailers are suffering. Last week Tesco announced that after a good festive season it expects to make £2.75 billion profit in the year to February, an increase on the £2.49 million made in 2022–3. According to Tesco this was partly due to the popularity of its £2.09 Christmas dinner.

In response, Sharon Graham, General Secretary of Unite, thundered that: “At a time when food prices continue to rise and millions of people are still struggling to feed their families, Tesco have been raking in bumper profits on the back of profiteering.

“Corporations like Tesco have done very well out of the cost-of-living crisis – unlike working people who have had to swallow inflated costs that have lined the pockets of the bosses and investors.”

It is telling that these justifiable remarks come from a union that has a very small presence in the sector. Those workers it does represent are almost entirely those in warehouses and delivery drivers. It has a rival in the form of the GMB in these areas.

The main union in the retail sector is the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW). It is the sixth largest union in Britain and claims a membership of 360,000 members on its website. That sounds good but for the fact that there are 3.54 million workers in the retail sector. Its official returns record a membership of 356,652, including the 15,000 for which it has no known address. It therefore only represents less than a 10th of the retail workforce. Three years ago it had 380,000 members and represented 13 per cent of the retail workforce, which was then slightly larger than now. So its website claim that it is a growing union needs adjustment.

Retail has long been a difficult sector to organise. Employer opposition can be brutal, as in the case of Amazon where GMB had recently had some hard-won success. In other companies such as Marks and Spencer (M&S) and John Lewis unions are politely ignored. John Lewis is a co-operative that does not have anything so vulgar as ‘employees’ but has partners who officially own it, although it is basically like any other company. The CEO earns £990,000 while a new catering assistant can be on £9.35 per hour. As with many other retailers in recent years, overtime rates for Sunday and late hours have faded away into history.

Marks and Spencer also ignores unions and has repeatedly ignored demands from USDAW for recognition. Like John Lewis, M&S has tended to fend off unions by paying staff a bit more than the average on the high street, and by serving edible food in their staff canteens along with other small perks. These perks were found to have no value when both companies started closing and downsizing stores in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Useless USDAW?

It was interesting, but not surprising, that USDAW did not join in the recent protest made by Sharon Graham about Tesco’s profits. In 2016 USDAW signed an exclusive recognition agreement with Tesco to the annoyance of some other unions, which means it represents almost half of the Tesco workforce. It also has non-exclusive partnership agreements with supermarket chains Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, the Co-operative, Argos, Boots the Chemist and downmarket fashion chain Primark.

USDAW has long been run by right-wing factions. The union is affiliated to the Co-operative Party and is a cheerleader for Sir Keir Starmer. It has had eight general secretaries since it was founded as result of a merger in 1947. Of these, two became lords and three others became knights of the realm, which just goes to show how unions promote social mobility for the working class.

Earlier this month it responded to a report by the Centre for Retail Research which noted that in the course of 2023 some 10,494 shops closed and with them went 119,405 jobs. USDAW’s solution was simple: It complains that the Government has rejected an online sales tax and wants to help boost the profits of the supermarket chains by cutting business rates. General Secretary Paddy Lillis doffed his cap to say that: “Only by working together can we help 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.”

It claims that a one per cent online sales levy will raise £1.5 billion that could be devoted to cutting business rates by a fifth for retailers. Just what the working class needs! It also wants to see rent reductions for the same ‘deserving’ cases. USDAW also points out that in the same period that online Amazon has paid a total of £61.7 million in corporation tax, M&S paid £3.3 billion. The difference is not just one of online versus high street, as many businesses use the same tricks devised by clever accountants.

USDAW does not however, neglect the working classes. It demands improved skills and training and deplored the end of the Union Learning Fund. It demands a minimum wage of at least £12 per hour as a step towards £15 for all workers and an end to lower rates for younger workers, minimum contracts of 16 hours weekly, for everyone who wants it, that reflects normal hours worked and a ban on zero-hour contracts. Proper sick pay, which is rare in the sector, is another demand. Active campaigning on these issues, however, is hard to detect.

One thing USDAW has laid stress on is toughening the law on protecting workers from assaults and abuse and increasing penalties for shoplifters. In 2021 the Scottish parliament passed such legislation. That was a worthy measure, but it is something of a belt and braces measure as there are plenty of laws against such criminal acts. It was one that was supported by the employers, which would not happen if USDAW was demanding higher wages.

It has to be said that USDAW does not have a good reputation. Some disgruntled ex-members suggest it would be better named “Useless Seven Days A Week”. This recent review of USDAW’s performance on the Trustpilot website is all too typical: “Morrisons have taken everything we had from us at their manufacturing division – loyalty bonus, profit share, overtime pay, pensions have been worsened, and they proposing further reduction of contributions from the company.

“Full sick pay came up for review, in exchange for a paltry hourly pay increase which didn’t even get anywhere close inflationary levels. In exchange for a considerable loss of full sick pay benefit, I received a three per cent pay increase, despite the fact that inflation is at around fifteen per cent, ergo we lost our sick pay and I effectively took a 12 per cent pay cut for the privilege. Yet, USDAW endorsed it! Everyone I know in union voted against it, yet the vote came back approximately 65 per cent for and 35 against the proposal. Whilst this is possible, I find it improbable, like turkeys voting in favour of Christmas. I wouldn’t be surprised if USDAW rigged the outcome after the backlash some years ago over a pay increase some years ago which by a majority was rejected by the members, and likely cost them time and money to resolve, along with ACAS being involved. It was pushed through despite the members voting against it. So they probably just fixed this one to save themselves the hassle and cost.

“I’ll add that I like the union rep for my area from speaking with over the phone, he’s an alright guy. But the union itself isn’t good for fighting the corner of their members.”

We quote this almost in full because there are far too many similar complaints about USDAW being too cosy with bosses to dismiss this particular one.

There is obviously an urgent need for a tougher approach from unions than the partnership model peddled by USDAW.

A recent example of this was at the Asda store in Gosport, where a threatened strike by GMB members was called off at the last minute. The threat of strike action by 100 GMB members was enough for bosses to offer a four-day week – however, it may have made this concession because its accounts are presently under scrutiny. We shall just have to wait and see if this concession continues after parliamentary scrutiny ends.

While supermarkets make massive profits, they generally do so by making slim margins on huge and quick turnover. Strike action would therefore be effective in speedily hitting them in the pockets. That depends on worker militancy, which will be difficult.