Tesco rep recruits 300

THE USDAW shop workers’ union provided two of the winners of the TUC’s Reps of the Year Awards 2011.

Tesco employee Anas Ghaffar won the Organising Award after recruiting 300 members in just six months. He co-ordinates a 12-strong team of store reps, raising awareness of the union, convincing non-members to sign up and persuading lapsed members to rejoin.

He is a graduate of USDAW’s Organising Academy, which offers a six-month secondment to one of the union’s divisions to learn organising skills under the mentorship of a full-time official.

Another USDAW member, Jonathan Waterhouse, won the TUC’s Learning Rep Award, while the Safety Rep Award went to Clifford Mayor of building union UCATT. The TUC’s Congress Award for Youth went to Nick Parker of civil service union PCS, and the Women’s Gold Badge went to Evelyn Martin of the GMB general union.