Catalogue Number
NMLH.1991.115.10
Object Name
Poster
Title
'Always ahead in Distributive Workers Interests. Come and join USDAW.'
Place
Fallowfield, Manchester, Lancashire
People
Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW)
Date
around 1950
Description
This poster features an illustration of a smiling woman and the slogan 'Always ahead in Distributive Workers Interests - Come and Join USDAW'.
USDAW created this poster as part of a collection to promote the union to Manchester workers between 1970 and 1990. Women workers typically hadn't been approached to join unions, but as more women joined the out-of-home workforce following the Second World War, unions for professions with larger numbers of women, like shop and distribution work, began to appeal to women to join in their advertising. The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) is a UK trade union with around 360,000 members who work across a variety of industries including call centres, warehouses and supermarkets. The union was formed in 1947 by the merger of the National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers and the National Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen and Clerks. Some other unions have since merged in, including the Amalgamated Society of Boot and Shoe Makers and Repairers in 1955, and the Scottish Union of Bakers and Allied Workers in 1978.
Union membership can benefit workers as it allows the union to negotiate on their behalf during grievances, to negotiate pay rises and intervene if mass redundancies are threatened. Originally, a trade union would only represent a single profession, but over time it became more practical to have larger unions representing multiple professions, as USDAW does. Over six million people in the UK are union members in 2024, but during the industrial era where people tended to stay in one profession for most of their working life, membership was much higher.
