Good result for fighting shop worker in Britain
In Britain the main union covering shop workers is called the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW). Recently the union held an election for General Secretary. A woman by the name of Robbie Segal shook up the right wing leaders by gaining 40% of the vote!
Robbie is a Tesco worker and on a shoe-string budget she faced the entire USDAW official machine. The whole right wing union full-time bureaucracy was mobilised to crush her, but she still managed to gain over 18,000 votes, winning the moral victory by far.
Robbie’s program clearly appealed to the members by calling for an £8 an hour minimum wage, no to ‘partnership’ deals between the union and the employers, for democracy within the union, and for an alternative to New Labour.
Robbie also pledged to reject the £100,000 general secretary’s wage and to continue on her Tesco-level wage.
The result is in no way a ringing endorsement of the current leadership. These votes, for a fighting trade unionist, is testimony to the changing mood in the union. Robbie’s brave stand has given a voice to the ordinary members of USDAW and UNITE congratulates her on the result.
USDAW General Secretary election result:
Voting papers distributed: 348,278
Ballot papers returned: 46,002 (13.2%)
John Hannett: 27,320 59.4%
Robbie Segal: 18,673 40.6%
Read below the letters that UNITE sent to Robbie.
Dear Robbie
I am just writing to congratulate you the excellent result you got in the recent election for USDAW General Secretary. The result shows that there is a significant section of shop workers who are looking for a fighting union leadership.
The policies that you campaigned around including for a democratic union and for officials to be on workers’ wages obviously hit a chord. UNITE in Australia is proud to stand with you and your comrades campaigning against low pay and casualisation.
We look forward to the possibility of joint work with fighting shop workers like yourself in the future.
Yours in unity
Anthony Main
UNITE Secretary
Dear Robbie
On behalf of UNITE in Australia, I would like to wish you all the best with your challenge to for the position of USDAW General Secretary.
We stand by you as a fighting union who is against cosying up to the big retail companies.
We support your call for a decent living wage for retail workers, for union democracy and for union officials to be on workers’ wages. As a union who has no relation to the Labor Party in Australia we also support your call for a new workers party.
Good luck in the election and we look forward to building stronger international links with USDAW when you are the General Secretary of that union.
Yours in unity
Anthony Main
UNITE Secretary
See also: http://www.robbiesegal.org/