Retail giant unilaterally declares 9,000 job losses |
Tesco
workers have reacted with a mixture of shock, anxiety and fury at the
announcement of 9,000 job losses, and the manner in which this jobs slaughter
was declared.
In
what was undoubtedly a cynically calculated leak from the higher echelons of
Tesco's bosses, the weekend press was full of speculation about 15,000 job
losses. If they thought this would lead to a collective sigh of relief from
thousands of distressed workers when the official announcement of ‘only’ 9,000
job losses was subsequently made, they were badly mistaken. Workers are rightly
furious at Tesco bosses treating them, and their unions, with such utter,
high-handed contempt.
An
unprecedented number of retail workers are talking about the case for
industrial action to stop these job losses. Unless talks with Tesco produce an
acceptable, total retreat from these plans - protecting all jobs, wages and
conditions - union activists and members in general are going to have to seize
the bull by the horns and make it plain that they are indeed prepared for
collective action. Otherwise, unless serious resistance is mounted, three times
as many jobs as were infamously wiped out at the Lanarkshire Ravenscraig
steelworks could be decimated.
TESCO RIP UP PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT
What
does this grotty episode say for Tesco’s attitude to the oft-trumpeted
partnership agreement with Usdaw?
They've
arrogantly ripped this agreement to shreds, not even consulting the union, let
alone negotiating their plans. Instead, unilaterally declaring their savagery via the media, proving in action that they believe in the
dictatorship of big business over workers and their elected representatives.
Even
the pathetically weak employment laws in this business-dominated state
prescribe consultation – and meaningful consultation at that – at the formative
stage of any planned changes to a business. This plan of butchery is in
flagrant contradiction to that procedure, let alone the alleged partnership
agreement Tesco’s signed up to with Usdaw.
As
I've often written before, social partnership is the partnership of the rider
and the horse, with big business in the saddle.
Tesco
bosses plan to slash 9,000 jobs, closing fresh food counters in 90 of their 790
large stores. They also want to only open the meat, fish and deli counters
part-time in the other 700 stores, plus cut back on staffing levels in the
replenishment and layout design operations. To add insult to injury, they aim
to replace staff canteens with glorified vending machines. That in itself means
loss of jobs for canteen staff. And when worries about the future of their
bakeries are raised, they trot out those well-worn, weasel words, “we have no
plans to shut the bakeries”; aye, no plans now, but what about the next phase
of cuts, if they get away with this round?
HOW IS ENDING FRESH FOOD COUNTERS ‘SUSTAINABLE’?
What
does this plan do for the growing, modern demand for fresh, locally-sourced
food? How does that match their soothing words about merely wanting “a simpler,
more sustainable business”? In truth, it’s just the latest link in the chain of
strangulation of small businesses, small farmers and food producers which the
big supermarkets wield every time they move into a town or area. For instance,
they wipe out local butchers’ shops and fishmongers, and now plan to get rid of
fresh fish and meat counters in their own super-stores.
Of
course, the immediate task of the union is to challenge Tesco’s bogus claims,
and demand that there is not a single job loss, nor a penny lost in any worker’s pay, in any changes to roles in the stores that might be (belatedly!)
negotiated with the unions – where Usdaw itself represents over 160,000 Tesco
workers. And every store should have a proper staff canteen – not to mention
protection and expansion of fresh food counters, sourced locally.
TESCO’S SKYROCKETING PROFITS
What
possible justification can there be for this jobs brutality?
Workers’ efforts
have achieved 12 consecutive quarters of growth for the business, plus a
successful Christmas trading period.
And
this is no struggling family corner shop!
Tesco’s
profits have skyrocketed in recent years, after top bosses incurred a loss of
£2billion in share values by, putting it plainly, fiddling the books. Profits
rose from £145m the previous year to £1.3billion in 2017, a gargantuan 800%
increase. And this bounty rocketed by a further 28% last year, to
£1.64billion.
In
the UK and Ireland alone, the efforts of Tesco workers produced over
£1.1billion in profits last year - another 31% rise on the year before.
Where
have all the profits gone? That's one of the central questions workers and the
union need to pursue and expose, in fighting to rip apart Tesco’s so-called
business case for this butchery of jobs and conditions. They should be forced
to open up their company plans and balance sheets to public inspection by the
unions and financial experts. What have they got to hide, if they are
merely wanting to meet changing customer expectations and “building a simpler,
more sustainable business”, as they claim?
DEMAND A LEGAL MAXIMUM INCOME
We
already have a partial answer to the question of where the profits sweated from
workers have gone: the bank accounts of top Tesco bosses. Chief
Executive, ‘Drastic’ Dave Lewis, enjoyed an increase of 17.5% on his
income last year, to a staggering £4.9million.
Leaving aside the combined
incomes of the other directors, Lewis’s obscene greed alone justifies the
policy which I successfully proposed at the 2018 Usdaw national conference
(ADM) - for a Legal Maximum Income initially set at ten times the legal minimum
wage.
If that was applied to the Tesco CEO, imagine the impact of
ploughing over £4.7m back into workers’ wages and job security, instead of it
going into the coffers of one fat-cat.
LOW PAY AND INSECURE CONTRACTS THREATEN JOBS
Retail in general is in crisis, with multiple causes. Last year,
70,000 jobs were shed, and the British Retail Consortium forecasts a further
90,000 job losses this year.
One of the root causes of the terrible insecurity
and loss of conditions facing the 3 million workers in retail is the chronic
low pay and insecure contracts imposed by the profiteers on this vital sector
of the economy - which contributes at least 11% of GDP.
Low wages and low hours – zero-hours and, more commonly,
short-hours contracts – strangle workers’ spending power, and thereby threaten
jobs. And it's not just poverty pay in retail that causes this problem; it's a
plague across all sectors.
That's why Usdaw’s centre-piece Time For Better Pay campaign is so
critically important. The demands for an immediate £10-an-hour minimum
wage for all workers, and a guaranteed minimum 16-hour contract for every
worker who wants it, would help fuel the economy, boost workers’ spending power
and their sense of security. And it would substantially redistribute wealth
from profits to pay.
Likewise, Usdaw’s campaign for a Retail Industrial Strategy is
critical in resisting this jobs slaughter, highlighted by the Tesco
announcement, but common to all the Big 4 supermarkets and the rest of the
sector. This calls for measures including changes to taxation to end the
unfair advantages enjoyed by online traders over ‘bricks and mortar’ stores;
reform of local commercial rents, business rates, public transport and
car-parking, to help save our High Streets; investment in upskilling retail
workers to meet the challenges of new technology; and improved productivity
through decent pay and contracts.
DEMOCRATIC PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF RETAIL GIANTS
But in my personal opinion, the outrageous butchery declared by
the unelected, totally unaccountable profiteers also highlights the need for a
radical overhaul of who owns and controls retail.
Why should multi-millionaire
owners and Chief Executives have the power to destroy the livelihoods of
thousands of workers, and create havoc for entire families and communities?
Why
should they be entitled to cream off £billions in profit and then ‘reward’
those workers who created this mountain of wealth for them with a P45?
At
the 2017 Usdaw national conference it was agreed to call for public ownership in
such situations. That would lay the foundations for a democratic plan of action
- embracing retail workers’ union representatives, local authorities and
governments - to invest in town centres and other retail outlets in a fashion
that maximises jobs, retail services to communities, and indeed the interests
of family farmers and small businesses.
A retail sector based on public needs
and agreed priorities, rather than dictatorship by the retail giants; an end to the rule
of private profit for the few over the lives and livelihoods of millions of
people.
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