Addressing Labour’s annual conference in Brighton, Dave McCrossen – Usdaw Deputy General Secretary said: “The Tories’ attacks on trade unions have led to a massive drop in the number of people covered by collective bargaining. This, in turn, has resulted in many workers not getting the pay increases they deserve, the working hours they need and the shifts and working patterns to fit with their caring responsibilities.
 
“We need a Labour Government and a Ministry for Employment Rights to turn the tide and give working people a real voice in the workplace. Labour is proposing sector-wide collective bargaining to deal with the evil of poverty pay.
 
“For collective bargaining to be effective, we need organised workplaces. Too many anti-union employers, like Lidl and Aldi, refuse to recognise trade unions and won’t even let us speak to their workers. Working people should have a right to what trade unions have to say and trade unions should have a right to access workplaces to speak to the workforce.
 
“We also need to remove some of the hurdles that bad employers use to stop trade unions negotiating on behalf of workers in their business. It should be easier for workers to be able to trigger recognition ballots to test whether a workforce want to be represented by a trade union. Only through trade union organisation and collective bargaining will workers get a fair deal in the workplace.”
 
Notes for editors:
 
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest and the fastest growing trade union with over 410,000 members. Membership has increased by more than one-third over the last couple of decades. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.
 
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion