Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers

The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) is a trade union in the United Kingdom, consisting of over 360,000 members. Usdaw members work in a variety of occupations and industries including: shopworkers, factory and warehouse workers, drivers, call centres, clerical workers, milkround and dairy process, butchers and meat packers, catering, laundries, chemical processing, home shopping and pharmaceutical. The retail sector employs around 2.77 million people.

Tackling cost of living issues is a key priority for Usdaw. The rising cost of everyday essentials such as food and clothes, piled on top of the sky-high prices of electricity, gas and transport as a cumulative effect on working people in Britain and is taking its toll.

Usdaw is campaigning for the Government to take urgent action to 'Save Our Shops'. They are calling for an urgent retail recovery plan that addresses issues facing high streets, stores and town centres.

Usdaw relies upon a "partnership" model with large employers such as with Tesco, where there exists "privileged access" to the management of both organisations. This arrangement coupled with its actions has been met with criticism, such as where the union seemingly presents itself as being concerned more with maintaining its positive, comfortable position and easy membership supply than that of fair representation of its members. This attitude has earned the union the pejorative backronym of Useless Seven Days A Week amongst workers and trade unionists.

It is widely considered to be on the right-wing on the political spectrum, occupying the "politically conservative" section of the Labour Party. Usdaw is also affiliated to the Co-operative Party. In November 2021, the union was criticised at its refusal to negotiate with a Nottingham-based employer who was proposing a 'fire-and-rehire' policy leading to workers having to negotiate for themselves.

Usdaw is campaigning to win a “New Deal for Workers”: A minimum wage that workers can actually live on; secure hours and an end to zero hours contracts; sick pay for everyone, but not from day one of illness since mid-2023 they formally endorsed Morrisons axing of day-one sick pay in favour of a three-day waiting period for all hourly paid employees; stronger redundancy rights; fairness, equality and a stronger voice at work. Usdaw’s annual Respect for Shopworkers Week usually takes place mid-November. During the campaign week Usdaw members are raising awareness of the union’s year-round Freedom from Fear Campaign, talking to the public to promote a message of ‘respect for shopworkers’.