Received from: GMB
Receive from GMB
Congress believes that the food retail sector is part of the nation’s critical infrastructure. Supermarket workers are key to feeding our communities.
Congress echoes GMB’s concern that highly debt-leveraged takeovers of our nation’s food distributors will cause crisis in supply and safety.
Since TDR Capital and the Issa Brothers bought ASDA in the largest debt-leveraged buyout ever of a UK company, over eight million hours have been stripped from the shop floor, making ASDA workers’ jobs harder.
These cuts have caused a steep decline in health, safety and food hygiene standards within ASDA stores and attacks on retail workers have increased.
ASDA’s balance sheet is now loaded with over £6bn of debt. Prior to TDR’s private equity ownership there was no debt.
Despite ASDA’s market share steadily declining, the priority for ASDA owners is only to service their debt and maximise profit for their shareholders. They have shown no intention to improve working conditions, increase market share nor settle GMB’s Equal Value claim.
TDR’s Stonegate Pubs are reported to be in crisis. Congress shares GMB’s deep concern about a similar fate for ASDA.
Congress commits to:
i. supporting GMB’s longstanding equal pay campaign in ASDA and GMB members who take industrial action in their stores.
ii. urging the Labour government to protect jobs, consumers and food security from high- risk indebted business models by improving corporate governance standards.
iii. giving workers voices on company boards and fulfilling its commitment to close private equity’s ‘carried interest’ tax loophole.
GMB