Issue 79:

January 2019

the bulletin of
theActivist members in

JOHN LEWIS WORKERS COUNT

THE COST OF THE RETAIL CRISIS
A John Lewis worker

A
s a John Lewis retail worker I was
gutted to hear that for the first
time in 66 years the John Lewis
leadership might suspend the
annual staff bonus.
What is even worse is that they admitted
they could afford to pay a modest bonus but
may choose not to due to “unusual economic
circumstances”. Brexit and the crisis on the
high street were both blamed.
But many of the low-paid staff at John
Lewis (and Waitrose which is also part of the

partnership) cannot afford not to receive a
bonus! Especially since the bonus last year
was cut for the fifth year in a row and was only
5% of a worker’s annual salary.
This is not very much when you consider that
non-management workers start on salaries
that are well below the £10 an hour that both
the Socialist Party and Usdaw demand should
be the absolute minimum for all workers.
John Lewis’s ‘employee-owned’ partnership
model means the company is viewed by some
as a fantastic place to work.
However, this is at odds with how many staff
feel. Morale is low and we are expected to offer
the same high level of service with less and
less staff.
Although management likes to emphasise that
we are all ‘co-owners’, employee concerns are
usually downplayed or ignored. There is no union
recognition which makes it harder to organise
with colleagues to fight for improvements.
The company has its own ‘democracy
structures’, which many workers do engage
with to try and get their voice heard.
However, many quickly get disillusioned with
them as, without the right to strike or collective
bargaining that trade unions bring, it means that,
in reality, these structures don’t have any teeth.
In many ways, working at John Lewis feels
like working for any other retailer. Premium
pay for Sundays and bank holidays are things
photo EG Focus/CC
of the past. They were scrapped for all new
workers several years ago. John Hannett- comitted
It’s a very uncertain time for retail workers Blairite?
right now and it feels like almost every week The Activist congratulates John
another high street retailer is in trouble. The Hannett who is spending his
most recent is M&S, which has announced a retirement from being Usdaw
further 17 store closures, putting 1,045 jobs general secretary by
at risk. getting elected to
The Socialist Party argues that these failing the strategy board of
retailers should not be allowed to sack workers worker-bashing, Blairite-
and should instead be brought into public supporting organisation
ownership. Progress!
Trade unions need to reach out to retail
workers in unorganised workplaces who would
be receptive to campaigns such as Usdaw’s
‘Time for Better Pay’ which not only demands JOIN THE SOCIALISTS
a £10-an-hour minimum wage but also an
end to zero-hour contracts, which many retail Text JOIN with your name & postcode to
workers are currently on. This campaign must 07761 818206
be backed up with a willingness to organise e: join@socialistparty.org.uk
serious action. t: 020 8988 8777 t: @socialist _party
All I want is to be able to do my job
effectively, with the right resources, and be
f: Socialist Party
paid fairly for it.

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theActivist
Bank Holidays - Who are they for? Irish Tesco strike in
those Hogmanay Hangovers?
defence of union
New Year’s Day - a day to accommodate
Good Friday and Easter Monday - a
festival and holiday celebrating the
crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus?
May Day (International Workers Day)
- a day to show solidarity with past and
current struggles of workers, throughout
the world. From 1890 it has been
associated with the struggle to secure the
right to an eight hour working day.
Boxing Day - Traditionally, it was a day
when employers distributed money, food,
cloth (material) or other valuable goods to
their employees.
These are only brief statements as to the
origins of these particular public holidays.
In England and Wales, there are eight such
holidays identified in the calendar.
You might say that these definitions
answer the “what they are for” and not the
“who”; and you would be right. The truth is,
increasingly, over the last forty years Bank
Holidays are being seen by unscrupulous
bosses, not as commemorative holidays
but as retail opportunities. Directors
and shareholders of the “big four” food
retailers, in the UK, look forward to these
long weekend breaks whilst their workers
are exploited, deceived and even bullied
into working, with threats such as “we have
to meet the needs of the business” and
“if we gave you all the day off we’d have to
close” and finally, “if we didn’t open we’d
lose business and you could lose your job”.
What about the “needs of the employees”?
It might surprise you to know that,
most large retailers have a policy on
Bank Holiday working which stipulates it
is voluntary. Workers are entitled to “opt
out” of working on these days, without loss
of earnings. Holiday entitlement either
includes the eight Bank Holidays, or is in
addition to your annual holiday entitlement.
In practice, as with the legislation
on Sunday working and your right
to opt out of that, Store Supervisors
through Store Managers and even onto
Regional Managers, will apply pressure
on employees and deceive them into
believing their jobs are at risk, rather
than make them fully aware of policy
and legislation. Managers also fear that,
if workers were informed, they would
exercise their right and this would result
in the additional task of covering for
those workers who took their rightful
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the bulletin of
holiday. Something which, if not managed
correctly, might mean they themselves
have to work, when they could be
spending time with their own family.
Bosses and shareholders can be seen
at their most grasping and some store
managers at their most deceitful when
it comes to Boxing Day. Christmas, even
for non-believers, is a festive, social time
of year that most workers look forward
to spending with their families. Usdaw
are part of a campaign to force the large
retailers to close on Boxing Day. I believe
it would only take one of the “big four”
retailers to have the courage to admit
that, after the pre-Christmas spree,
spending in food retail stores declines,
probably until the New Year. They should
then have the courage to close on Boxing
Day and the others would follow suit.
Alternatively, as most large food retailers
have trade union agreements that do not
recognise collective bargaining, Usdaw
should encourage its members, nationally,
to exercise their right, this year, to opt out
of working on all Bank Holidays, including
Boxing Day 2019. This, even if the result
was the closure of only some stores,
would see shoppers plan their spending to
accommodate the extra days holiday and
retailers would see little, if any, effect on
their turnover. In the meantime, it is likely
to be a long campaign that will require
legislation to be put in place, defining
which retailers are to be covered with their
size/turnover/sector likely to be factors.
Also, it is our duty, as Trade Unionists,
to make sure that all workers are made
aware of their rights on Bank Holiday
and Sunday working. As Trade Union
Representatives, we can be guilty of
naivety in believing that policy and/
or legislation is fully explained at an
employee’s induction; that the handbook
or website fully explains workers’ rights;
that workers’ can be held responsible for
researching such information.
Bosses must respect workers’ rights in
this and all areas of legislation and their
managers’ should follow the policy as laid
down by the company. We as local Trade
Union Representatives are ideally placed
to identify the deceit and bullying that
goes on in our store(s). We must provide
our members with the information they
need. This is the only way to protect them
from exploitation and bullying.
members in
Irish Tesco workers took strike action in December
against the effective derecognition of their trade union
Mandate. Workers in Sligo took four days of strike
action and were joined by Tesco workers in Carrick-on-
Shannon on 22 December.
70 workers joined the first day of the strike in Sligo, a
process that evolved from a collective grievance lodged
in April 2017. After Tesco management repeatedly
ignored this, eventually Mandate balloted workers with
97% voting for strike action on an 85% turnout!
This dispute, like the previous strike wave in Tesco in
2017, is a resounding rejection of the idea that retail
workers will not respond to calls for strike action.
Clearly workers in Sligo have shown their
determination not to be walked over by management.
The Activist sends its full support to Tesco workers
taking strike action in Sligo and Carrick-on-Shannon.
This follows the strike in over 20 Tesco stores in 2017
over changes to contracts for longer standing workers
who had contracts stretching back to companies which
had been taken over by Tesco. At the time, Socialist
Party members spoke to a Tesco worker about the
lengths which Tesco management have been prepared
to go to to break the union.
“There was massive scaremongering by
management that particularly affected the younger
newer members of staff. They were being told that their
fixed term contracts would not be renewed if they went
out on strike.
“As well there was an element of division introduced
by management where they hinted that newer staff
would get more hours if the company succeeded
in altering the terms of the pre-1996 staff. Various
freebees have been lavished on those working through
the strike such as reduced prices on stock and free
lunches.
“The massive costs the company are prepared to
incur - loss of business of up to 90% in the stores
where there are pickets coupled with the full page
ads they are taking out in the newspapers - should
tell us that this is not just about the marginally better
conditions of 250 staff out of 14,000.
“Clearly it is about breaking the union in Tesco in
order to prepare for further more significant attacks
on pay and conditions down the road. Tesco aim to
double their annual profits in Ireland and they see
the driving down of pay and conditions as the most
straightforward way of achieving that.
“The support from the wider public has been great.
Likewise messages of support from Tesco workers in
other countries. We know in the UK they have got away
with the attacks on conditions that they are trying to
impose here but Mandate has come out fighting more
so that the union that represents Tesco workers in
Britain.”