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Regional secretary with the National Education Union
The rush to automation will devastate our high streets
The retail crisis will not be tackled by replacing shopworkers with machines, warns Usdaw general secretary PADDY LILLIS

THE retail crisis continues as the latest stats show that nearly 10,000 jobs have been lost in retail since the start of the year and the industry lost 57,000 jobs last year. 

Usdaw, the shopworkers’ trade union, has joined retail employers in calling for measures to tackle the crisis on our high streets, including a reform of business rates to help level the playing field between online and “bricks-and-mortar” retailers.

This is not about favours from government, it’s about fairness across all forms of retailing. 

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