Usdaw’s Supporting Parents and Carers Campaign was launched seven years ago in response to a growing number of reps looking to the union for advice and guidance about how they might better support members juggling paid work with caring commitments.
Every year the union organises a national campaign day, called Spotlight Day. This year Spotlight Day is 21 March. The theme of Spotlight Day varies from year to year. In 2012 Usdaw is using Spotlight Day to focus on raising awareness of the Coalition’s cuts to welfare support for children and families – cuts that are set to hit Usdaw members particularly hard.
2012 is proving to be a difficult year for Usdaw members with changes to tax credits and cuts to other benefits coming on top of rising prices. Hours of work are also under pressure as growing numbers of employers are restructuring hours in response to changes in consumer spending and trading patterns. The changes to tax credits and other benefits are putting many household budgets under extra pressure at a time when they are already struggling to make ends meet.
Usdaw’s Parents and Carers campaign has a vital role to play in these difficult times. The upcoming Spotlight Day is focused on supporting members who may be finding it difficult to cope with changes in working hours and informing them about up and coming changes to Tax credits and other benefits.
Every Usdaw rep has now received a Spotlight Day campaign pack. The pack briefs them on the theme of the day and asks them to support the campaign in their workplaces and do what they can to raise awareness of the issues. It includes leaflets, posters, a survey and a pledge card that we ask members to sign to show their support for the campaign and its aims.
Some Usdaw reps use the campaign materials to theme the Union noticeboard for a month. Others hand out leaflets and carry out the survey. In around 650 workplaces reps pull out all the stops and organise a campaign stand either in the staff canteen, at the front end of stores or in shopping centres. Many reps invite their local Labour MP to attend Spotlight Day to talk to members and non-members about the work Labour has done and plans to do to support working families.
Usdaw has found that Spotlight Days deliver real outcomes for the union. The union’s campaign materials are used throughout the year by reps and officials to raise the profile of the union and support members.
Union reps have already told us that members and non-members are struggling to understand how the changes to tax credits and benefit cuts will affect them. One rep has said, ‘People are unaware of what is happening and are grateful that we are telling them about the changes. The leaflets encourage people to come and talk to us about their worries.’
Another Usdaw rep has said that Campaign Spotlight Days are a helpful recruitment tool: ‘I use Spotlight Day to encourage non-members to join the union. It helps because it shows that we understand the pressures our members are under and shows that we are not just there for when things go wrong at work but that we are positively campaigning to make a difference. Spotlight Day helps me get my message across that we can help and have a lot to offer.’
As well as asking reps to organise campaign activity in workplaces, Usdaw is working with Labour MPs to highlight that changing the working hours rules for tax credits for couples with children is the wrong thing to do.
From next month couples with children will have to increase their hours of work from 16 to 24 hours a week to retain their entitlement to tax credits. In the current economic climate negotiating extra working hours is particularly difficult. Many thousands of low-paid workers are set to lose much needed financial support in April at a time when they can least afford it.
Usdaw is campaigning to protect working tax credits and highlight the real impact of the proposed changes on working families.
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John Hannett is general secretary of Usdaw
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Find out more about Supporting Parents and Carers Spotlight Day here
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Writing in support of Spotlight Day today are Usdaw general secretay John Hannett, Usdaw MPs Hazel Blears and Yvonne Fovargue, Welsh AM and Janice Gregory and Islington councillor Kate Groucutt. Read them all here