WHEN The Grocer magazine awarded Lidl the accolade Grocer of the Year in June 2015, the German supermarket’s UK managing director Ronny Gottschlich commented: “Low price doesn’t have to mean low quality.”
He might have added that it also didn’t have to mean huge rewards for those at the top while workers are denied the right to be represented by a union.
Four months after The Grocer bestowed its award, Gottschlich received a 56 per cent pay rise, taking his annual salary to £960,000.
Incoming Usdaw general secretary JOANNE THOMAS talks to Ben Chacko about workers’ rights, Labour and how to arrest the decline of the high street
KEVAN NELSON reveals how, through its Organising to Win strategy, which has launched targeted campaigns like Pay Fair for Patient Care, Britain’s largest union bucked the trend of national decline by growing by 70,000 members in two years


