By Nick Parker, Skipton and Ripon CLP member
On Sunday 3rd November, thousands of workers at supermarket giant ASDA face termination of their employment after refusing to sign a new contract that would leave them financially worse off from 2021. These new terms and conditions, known as ‘Contract 6’, consist of a rise in basic hourly pay (from £8.17 to £9, and £9.18 from April 2020), but it is offset by a transition to unpaid breaks, a requirement to work bank holidays and more flexibility for management to switch staff between departments at short notice.
In addition, shifts can be changed with four weeks’ notice. All in all, as the even Daily Mirror reported in August, several thousand workers stand to be up to £1500 a year worse off as a result of these changes. ASDA itself has admitted that around 5 per cent of ‘colleagues’ will lose out financially, but that is almost certainly an underestimate.
This episode has resulted in a dispute between ASDA and staff organized in the GMB union, with the latter leading several marches and demonstrations outside ASDA’s head office in Leeds. The GMB’s campaign and the testimonies from individual workers raise important and worrying points about the direction of travel that ASDA’s actions signify.
ASDA owned by a notoriously anti-union company
Since 1999, the supermarket giant has been owned by the American behemoth Walmart, a notoriously anti-union company. This is demonstrated by the fact that only a minority of ASDA staff are unionized, thus weakening the bargaining position of the GMB and giving weight to the company’s PR operation, which incessantly repeats that the vast majority of ‘colleagues’ will receive a pay increase and that the changes represent an £80 million ‘investment’ in their staff. This is an attempt by the company to create the impression that the majority of staff are pitted against a recalcitrant minority.
To compel workers to sign the new contract, a method that can only be described as intimidatory has been deployed; there is a requirement to attend a series of ‘one to one’ meetings with a line manager where workers are ‘persuaded’ to agree to the new terms. Given that the ultimate result for those declining to comply with worsening their living standards is dismissal, it is difficult to see how this amounts to genuine persuasion or discussion.
With the current turmoil around Brexit and the eagerness of the Tories to align more closely with the USA around trade, ASDA’s actions are a worrying portent for British industrial relations if the Tories manage to retain power at the upcoming general election.
The supermarket claims the changes are necessary because of the competitive nature of the industry it operates in. This comment seems to disprove its claim that it is investing more in staff; competitive pressures are usually evoked as a justification to cut spending, not the opposite. This aside, the figures simply do not stack up. As the GMB highlights, ASDA’s profits rose 13 per cent to £805 million last year, with payouts to directors increasing by over 20 per cent, far more than the below-inflation pay rises that many workers across Britain are having to endure.
Taxpayers subsidise ASDA low-pay strategy
The fact remains that many ASDA shop workers are so low paid that they are having to be supported by tax credits and other benefits. It means that the taxpayer is subsiding this company’s policy of low pay and it works out that ASDA benefits to the tune of an average of £365,000 per store, per year, thanks to taxpayers.
Given the draconian nature of the proposed changes, the question must be posed as to why the GMB have not attempted a more radical course of action such as a strike, or a mass lobby of consumers, to encourage a boycott of ASDA stores. Such actions might be fraught with difficulties because of the low union membership, but this has not stopped the inspiring actions by workers at McDonalds and other companies. Indeed, seeing a union taking militant action in support of workers rights and living standards is the best recruitment strategy the GMB could put in place.
In terms of a boycott, many comments sections on news websites contain pledges not to shop at the supermarket anymore. The labour movement must fully and unconditionally support the ASDA workers in their fight for justice. The danger remains, however, that union tactics that are too timid might lead to a dead-end, with workers tired, and disillusioned and a facing a serious setback.
October 31, 2019
