USDAW ceremony honours outstanding reps

Shopworkers’ union USDAW recruited 2,000 new reps in 2007, and ended the year with 356,046 members – its highest membership level for 16 years.

The announcement was made at the union’s third national Organising Awards ceremony last month – a deliberately glitzy event celebrating the hard work of USDAW reps across eight categories.

This year’s individual recruitment award went to Susan David, a shop steward at supermarket chain Morrison’s Neath branch who has raised membership to 93% by recruiting new starters at inductions, often outside her normal working hours.

Last year David became a “stand down rep” (temporarily seconded to the union to establish organising activities in a variety of workplaces) and recruited 112 new members in a two-week period.