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Over 600 delegates and 500visitors and officials attendedUSDAWs 66th Annual DelegateMeeting (ADM) in late April.During the past few months keyissues have been raised facingretail workers such as workfare,store closures, attacks on

pensions in Tesco and othermatters. Yet these issues wereeither not dealt in favour of otherequally serious issues, such asthe Civil Injuries CompensationScheme or Sunday Trading, withwhich the union leadership couldbash the Tories without taking upthe equally important task oftaking on our employers. Insteadof presenting a fighting strategy

to defeat such attacks, theyattempted to channel efforts intoe lec t ing a New Labourgovernment in 3 years time.

Whilst USDAW members arerightly angry at the attacks ofemployers and those of thegovernment on benefits as well

as public services (ADM passedmotions condemning cuts andprivatisation in the NHS and theclosure of the Remploy network),the failure of the leadership tooffer a concrete way to fight onthese issues was reflected duringthe course of the conference.

The top table were overturned onfive occasions and changed theirposition mid-debate on twooccasions. On several occasionsthe defeat of the leadership wascheered by many in the hall, asign of the frustration of manymembers at the lacklustre effortsof the present leadership to stopthe bosses onslaught.

Partnership agreements were oneof the things that came underattack (see article below) as werethe anti-union laws that Labourfailed to repeal during their 13-year tenure in office. Yet whatwas being concretely put forwardby the propositions was very

limited such as

just askingt h a tL a b o u ri n c l u d e srepeal ingthe anti-union lawsi n i t smanifesto.

In part this

weaknessis due to

the lack of

an organised left presence at the

conference. The vacant seat at

the top table that would have

been occupied by Socialist Party

member Robbie Segal, had her

health allowed, symbolised this.

The nearest thing to a mention ofsocialism came when the

fraternal speaker from South

Africa finished his contribution

with the closing lines of the

Communist Manifesto - Workers

of the world unite, you have

nothing to lose but your chains -

you have a world to win.

Yet the possibility of filling thisvacuum was shown by the

snapping up of the hundreds of

copies of the ADM special of the

Activist and the good sales of the

Socialist and the new pamphlet

by Robbie (see advert). We urge

all supporters of the Activist to

mobilise to attend next years

ADM and put in propositions that

offer a concrete strategy to fightthe problems besetting USDAW

members.

New

pamphlet

Available

for 2 from

Socialist

Books now(020 8988 8777 )

[email protected]

Fighting Alternative Still Needed

Despite Delegates Anger at ADM

Find out more: usdawactivist.wordpress.com / [email protected] / Facebook: Usdaw Activist

the ActivistIssue 33

Post-ADM Special

Bulletin of Socialist Party members in

Next year Activist supporters must get their voices heard at the conference.


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As supporters of the Activisthave pointed out over thecourse of the past few years,

the leaderships policy ofSocial Partnership has meantattacks on the terms,conditions and pay of USDAWmembers. Activist supporter,Robbie Segal, made the fightagainst partnership a keyplank of her campaign forGeneral Secretary in 2008where she won 40% of thevote against the Hannettclique (Robbies article written

during the campaign wasrecently reprinted in issue 27of the Activist and can bev i e w e d a twww.usdawactivist.wordpress.com).

Over the past period as wellas signing partnership dealswith major retailers such asTesco, Morrisons, Sainsburysand others have meant the

erosion of terms andconditions within stores, inparticular with the introductionof flexible contracts andworkers only being contractedfor a minimal numbers ofhours per week. Lately,

Tescos sense of partnershipwas demonst ra ted byuni la tera l ly announcing

attacks on pensions. Manystaff have little idea when orhow many hours they areworking each week.

A motion, opposed by theunions Executive Council(EC), calling for a halt to theundermining of full-time work,by calling for a minimumpercentage of staff to beemployed full-time was

passed by 2/3rds majority tocheers from those assembled.Just how discredited theunions efforts in Tescos arewere shown when one of thespeakers who is on the Tescoforums flexi working groupapologised for it!

But members in warehousesand distribution have had theirterms hit even worse as

companies have built newdepots and re-employed anystaff wishing to transfer onmuch worse terms andconditions compared to theold depots. This has led to afeeling of frustration and even

Bulletin of Socialist Party members in USDAW


6th annual conference takes place onSaturday 9th June, Friends Meeting House,

Euston Rd, London - 11am-4pmSpeakers include:

Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary;

Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary; and arank and file construction electrician

See www.shopstewards.net for info

ADM Revolts Against Partnershipdesperation amongst many USDAWmembers, as one delegate expressedPartnership sounds great in theory, but in

practice it doesnt work for us.

This even led a group of transport workersfrom one depot, so frustrated by the signingof a contract with appalling terms andconditions before they even started work attheir current depot, to put forward aproposition suggesting scrapping ofcollective agreements as it is seen as anoose over their ability to negotiate withmanagement. Whilst this proposition fell, theleadership felt the need to change their

position mid-debate on an earlier propositionthat was specific to relocation of Tescodepots. After Jeff Broome repeatedly statedthat the EC were opposing the proposition,Paddy Lillis stated they were now supportingwhen he replied to the debate!

They felt able to do this because the

proposition posed entering into re-

negotiations with management, which would

undoubtedly will result in a dead end, instead

of proposing a serious strategy, backed upby industrial action, that could use the

unions muscle and organisation to demand

conditions that retail and distributive workers

deserve. After all, the Sparks (construction

electricians) beat off the threat of imposed

new contracts with worse terms and

conditions which included potential pay cuts

of up to 35% by the combination of the threat

of industrial action and a serious programme

of protests targeting companies they were in

dispute with. We need that sort of fighting

strategy to defeat these attacks too.

Sparks protest against Morrisons after they signed a contract withNG Baileys - one of companies attacking their pay and conditions.
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Bulletin of Socialist Party members in USDAW


I read the article on someproposals in Activist 32 to developthe campaign amongst youngworkers with interest. At our lastdivisional youth committee meetingwe were consulted for ideas onhow the union could reach out tomore young people. In my opinion,one of the key things is increasingthe unions profile, particularly bycampaigning on issues that matterto young people such as EMA,tuition fees, against lower youthrates of pay.

On several occasions, it has beenmentioned to me that in Scotlandthe youth committee has a lotmore participation than otherdivisions in the union. Fromspeaking to members of thatcommittee at ADM it seems to methat there is a much more activeapproach taken there. The bulk ofthe organising is done by leadingmembers of that committee rather

than the area organiser, whichmeans that within a day or twothey are in contact with other

young union activists. This is alsohelped by meeting up sociallyoutside the youth committeemeetings, as well as attendingSTUC youth events as a delegation.

It struck me as well that much ofthe activities that the youthcommittees are involved in ismainly union awareness raising aswell as fundraising for charity,indeed the latter was the mainactivity of the unions NationalYouth Committee members atADM. The energies of the unions

youth should also be pushedoutwards, both within the union byhaving a Youth fringe at ADMwhich can discuss the issuesaffecting young union members aswell as having youth organisers inevery branch to make sure theseissues are reflected in all theunions campaigning.

But also, it is crucial to bring young

members together to discuss howto draw up serious campaigns to

challenge the burdens facing young

workers today. An excellent

opportunity to do this would be to

have a youth conference to launch

the new drive to recruit youngworkers with a much larger

representation than the current

youth weekend. This could discuss

such issues in depth but also

discuss working with other bodies

such as TUC Youth Forums and

campaigns like Youth Fight for Jobs

which have taken a lead on

campaigning against workfare.

A Contribution on USDAWs Youth Campaigning

At this years ADM a meeting todiscuss re-launching the unionsBroad Left was held. For the pastfew years the Broad Left has onlyexisted as a fund-raising social

night at ADM, so it is welcome tosee union activists get together tostart challenging the mis-leadership of John Hannett and hisclique.

After collecting large numbers ofnames interested in re-establishingthe Broad Left at this years social,

a speaker commented on thedefeats of the union leadership atADM and highlighted the need fordelegates to exercise theirdemocratic rights and not cower

under the pressure of the existingleadership.

But any such resurgence must becombined with policies that cantake the union forward, if theBroad Left wishes to re-establishitself then it must put forwardpropositions to this effect at next

years ADM and campaign to winsupport for them.

Another key factor will be winning

the new, youthful layers to support

left-wing and Socialist ideas within

the union. The discussion taking

place amongst supporters of the

Activist for fighting youth policies

for the union is one thing we hope

to bring to the Broad Left in the

coming period.

Broad Left Fighting Opposition to Leadership Needed

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