Catalogue Number
NMLH.1991.115.14
Object Name
Poster
Title
'Forward with Labour! Let your X on your ballot paper on May 26th bring good results for the workers. USDAW'
Place
Fallowfield, Manchester, Lancashire
People
Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), Labour Party
Date
around 1950
Description
This poster reads 'Forward with Labour! Let your X on your ballot paper on May 26th bring good results for the workers. USDAW'.
Many unions are or were affiliated to the Labour Party, meaning they have the power to lobby for policies that will benefit the union's members to Labour Party politicians - which is particularly useful when Labour is in government. This poster illustrates how this affiliation led to unions encouraging their members to vote for the Labour Party during elections. 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.
