The shopworker union Usdaw has launched a campaign against the police cuts in England and Wales. It has claimed that what it calls the Coalition’s attack on police budgets is a threat to the safety of all public-facing workers….
The union is running its annual Respect for Shopworkers Week, between November 7 and 11. Usdaw General Secretary John Hannett told the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool in September that in November Usdaw members will be petitioning against police cuts. At the party political conference a motion from Usdaw (the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers)<br>condemned police and public service cuts. John Hannett told the conference: "Every minute of every day a shopworker is assaulted, threatened or abused so during my speech to you today at least five shopworkers will have been on the wrong side of an angry customer, a shoplifter trying to get away with it or a youngster who has been refused a sale of alcohol. That is why one of Usdaw’s major campaigns is called Freedom from Fear. Shopworkers should be free from the fear of violence, threats and verbal abuse and it should never be accepted as just a part of the job. But it isn’t only shopworkers that face these problems. NHS staff, teachers, firefighters, the police and all public-facing workers have the same concerns.<br><br>"While it is an employer’s first duty to keep their employees safe it is Government’s first duty to keep all of us safe. That is where this Tory-led Coalition will fail us, with a predicted loss of 16,000 frontline police officers, 1,800 PCSOs and over 16,000 policing staff who do vital work to keep police officers on the frontline. This Government’s unprecedented cuts in funding will affect frontline policing. Don’t just take my word for it – the Police Federation are saying today "20 per cent cuts to policing are criminal".<br>"We know that Labour’s investment in police made a real difference. Crime fell by 43 per cent because a Labour government put thousands of extra officers on the street, created PCSOs to give a higher profile to street policing, formed neighbourhood police teams and gave the public a greater say in how their communities were policed. That reduction in crime was replicated for shopworkers and the British Retail Consortium’s Annual Retail Crime Survey shows that violent incidents against shopworkers have halved since 2004. That just goes to show what can be achieved when a Labour Government takes the lead, bringing together employers, police, local authorities and the staff through their Trade Union to work jointly against violence, threats and abuse. Does anyone really believe that by cutting frontline policing crime will continue to fall – as it did with Labour? That is not the logical conclusion I draw. I fear that when these cuts bite we will be left with a much less effective police force that will be grossly under-staffed and terribly demoralised. I fear that Britain will return to the dark days of Thatcher with high unemployment, high crime and little hope. Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Labour MPs up and down the country have done a first rate job opposing the police cuts in Parliament and Labour’s next manifesto must have a commitment to ensuring there are sufficient numbers of police officers to keep crime falling once again." For more information about Usdaw’s campaign against the police cuts, this year’s Respect for Shopworkers Week and the union‚Äôs Freedom From Fear campaign visit www.usdaw.org.uk/ourcampaigns/freedomfromfear.aspx
