Some 40,000 workers have already been made redundant following the collapse of big retail chains such as MFI and The Pier, Zavvi, Whittards, Adams, USC, Viyella and of course budget family favourite, Woolworths. This is to name but a few.
In the chain stores still standing, widespread fear is now in full effect with workers receiving little or no information from head offices as to whether their jobs are secure.
Dramatic statements are rife in the media with experts warning that there will be worse to come, spelling “the end of the high street as we know it“, conjuring up images of a dystopian big-business dominated consumer environment as independent and mid-ranking chain retailers alike struggle to stay afloat.
The Telegraph reported on the 4th of January that “The Centre for Economics and Business research is forecasting that retailers will be forced to cut between 100,000 and 135,000 jobs in 2009 because of the "severity of the slowdown, as we have seen viscerally over the last month," according to CEBR economist Charles Davis.
According to a statement made yesterday by TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber, “Unfortunately it seems certain that unemployment will continue to rise for at least the first 6 months of 2009, with a very strong chance it will pass the 2.5 million mark by June.”
In this recession some of biggest announced closures and layoffs are in the service industry comprised of retail and hospitality where more women than men work. As the retail sector is female-dominated, the recession will have a brutal impact on child poverty.
It is imperative that schemes are put in place by the government to ensure that the women who face redundancy are either guaranteed a new job immediately, or decent living benefits if not.
Retail workers must quickly organise if they find themselves in the unfortunate position of losing their jobs. They could certainly do worse than to follow the admirable lead of the 150 staff employed by Woolworths in Jersey who were told only 5 minutes after they closed for the last time that they would not be receiving a redundancy package. They launched a petition as a result, signed by almost 6000 people, staff and customers alike. The shop workers would be "lucky to survive more than a week" after their final wages without financial help according to a local politician.
Petitions are a good start to organising workers in a sector which is notoriously poorly unionised but workers must step up if they want to win serious concessions. American workers have shown the way in doing this so far.
Around 250 workers from Republic Windows and Doors voted “overwhelmingly” to occupy a Chicago factory until they received the severance pay owed to them and won a victory for their efforts.
You can read more about their struggle on the
REVO USA WEBSITE
