10 March 2021

Sainsbury's pay offer shows future will only be 'great pay' if we fight

In September 2018, Sainsbury's 'Band 2' workers were offered a contract that claimed "the future is great pay" as one of its "destinations"

More ...

20 January 2021

Morrisons - £10/hr headline hides divisive pay offer

Almost five years since the £10 an hour minimum wage demand was adopted by Usdaw, Morrisons has become the first major company in which Usdaw represents workers, to accept the demand.

More ...

13 January 2021

Ryan Aldred: Why I'm standing for Usdaw's EC

With Covid decimating the retail sector, it is vital that Usdaw takes a lead in organising retail and distribution workers in supermarkets, high street chains and smaller, independent businesses.

More ...

13 January 2021

Lockdown 3.0 - fight to make our shops safe!

Over the last few months, retail has been vying with schools for the top spot for Covid-19 outbreaks

More ...

9 December 2020

High street jobs, safety and pay: We have to fight

Hospitality: Understaffed and underpaid, now it's got worse: Bar worker John Williams, a Socialist Party member in Cardiff, spoke at a protest to oppose the pay freeze in the public and private sector on 5 December.

More ...

2 December 2020

Arcadia and Debenhams closures: Nationalise to save jobs and pensions

Arcadia's insolvency is not simply another Covid-affected collapse. Its problems predate the pandemic. Likewise Debenhams.

More ...

2 December 2020

Don't let the festive season be one of misery for retail workers

The three days leading up to the England-wide lockdown were a taste of things to come, with shoppers flooding to the high street to squeeze in Christmas shopping.

More ...

11 November 2020

Sainsbury's and Argos: Closures, cuts and soaring sales

The news of over 3,000 job cuts will have been a bombshell to many Sainsbury's and Argos workers

More ...

4 November 2020

Usdaw needs a fighting leadership

It is vital now more than ever that a fighting programme be put forward in the shopworkers' union

More ...

30 September 2020

Usdaw elections: Defend members' right to participate

During the Covid-19 pandemic, members of Usdaw have been hit hard

More ...

22 July 2020

Mandatory masks in shops law

Government action is confused, contradictory, late, and fundamentally flawed.

More ...

22 July 2020

Continue the fight to protect safety

As lockdown eases, workers' rights must be defended. Employers have been attacking the health and safety measures won by members and their reps. Employers have raised the number of people allowed in shops

More ...

1 July 2020

Sunday trading: Government blinks first

Leaked reports emerged in mid-June that the government was looking at relaxing Sunday trading legislation for a year

More ...

17 June 2020

Resist relaxation of Sunday trading laws

Since rumours emerged in the media about the government considering a one-year relaxation of Sunday trading regulations, the leadership of retail workers' union Usdaw has finally started moving into action

More ...

17 June 2020

Debenham's protests: Workers must not pay price of Covid-19

Supporters of the National Shop Stewards Network held protests outside Debenhams stores in Leeds, London, Plymouth and Southampton against the company's savage cuts to jobs and stores, as part of a day of action called by members of the retail workers union, Usdaw.

More ...

10 June 2020

Non-essential retail to open - organising at work is essential

Johnson announced a wider opening of non-essential retail on 15 June.

More ...

15 April 2020

Usdaw shop workers' union activists meet via Zoom

Following weekly virtual meetings of Socialist Party members in Usdaw the shop workers' union to discuss the rapidly changing situation in retail, and producing several special issues of our bulletin, the Activist, we decided to hold a virtual public meeting on 11 April to take these discussions to, writes Iain Dalton, Socialist Party Usdaw caucus convenor.

More ...

6 April 2020

Capitalism causes crisis profiteering: fight for workers' oversight and public ownership

The government's laissez-faire attitude towards supplies, in effect contracting out any control of this to the major retailers, means there have been opportunities abundant for speculators to rip people off, writes Iain Dalton, Yorkshire Socialist Party.

More ...

30 March 2020

Working in Mike Ashley's empire: After lockdown we won't forget how we've been treated

I work for one of the retail chains in Mike Ashley's empire. As more shops were closing, pressure began mounting for our chain to close too. But we were expected to lone work, rather than simply closing

More ...

25 March 2020

Retail and the coronavirus outbreak - organise to defend workers interests

Coronavirus is sending tremors through capitalist society. Many workers who have been enduring increasing casualised working conditions, such as zero or short-hour contracts, have had further cuts to sick pay and other contractual changes.

More ...