Who you ask and how you ask matter, as does why you are asking — the history of opinion polls shows they are as much about creating opinions as they are about recording them, writes socialist historian KEITH FLETT
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Usdaw calls for a New Deal for Workers
It shouldn’t have taken a crisis to recognise the essential role of our key workers, argues PADDY LILLIS #SolidarityWithShopworkers
Usdaw has been urging the government to acknowledge retail workers as a fundamental part of the economy
Scotland has become one of the world’s most foreign-owned economies, and our political elite celebrates these sell-offs as success — we need to ask how supposedly progressive nationalism has enabled corporate capture, writes DR JAMES FOLEY
When the latest round of hysteria reached our town, we successfully organised and stopped it reaching the asylum centre gates as the far right had planned — but we need to have answers for the local residents who joined their demonstration, writes NICK WRIGHT
A ‘new phase’ for Starmerism is fairly similar to the old phase – only worse. ANDREW MURRAY takes a look
Macron is seeking a centrist replacement for the pro-austerity French PM, while the emergence of the grassroots Bloquons Tout movement means for the left there’s a period of struggle ahead – and all to play for, writes BILL GREENSHIELDS
The Met Police arrested a staggering 890 people, many elderly, disabled, and even blind in a single demonstration — all to back up the government’s unhinged campaign against non-violent civil disobedience at the behest of Israel, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
The coronavirus emergency has brought about a new understanding of the essential role retail workers have in keeping our communities fed, healthy and safe. Usdaw’s consistent calls for shopworkers to be respected and valued are being heard, but that must not fade into the background when this national crisis passes.
There must be lasting and fundamental changes to the way society views our lowest paid workers. We need a New Deal for the workers employed in our supermarkets, distribution warehouses, food processing sites and home delivery operations. A new deal on pay, a real living wage, an end to insecure employment and action to ensure that retail jobs are no longer underpaid and undervalued.
#SolidarityWithShopworkers is not just a phrase for a crisis and the issues our members face are not new, but amplified in this emergency situation. Their key worker status has brought with it very welcome public applause and government recognition.
More from this author
By sticking together, working collectively and building the union, we can weather any uncertainty ahead, writes general secretary of Usdaw PADDY LILLIS
We need a proper social security system that supports families and provides a proper safety net, writes PADDY LILLIS, calling for the Labour government to lift the cruel two-child benefit cap
The growing epidemic of retail crime has seen Usdaw members abused, threatened and assaulted — it is time for action, and the May 2 elections can provide it, writes PADDY LILLIS
General secretary PADDY LILLIS explains why Usdaw believes supporting Labour is vital for its members’ well-being — rising costs, economic instability, and punitive restrictions on unions underscore the urgent need for political change
