As traffic passes Allied Bakeries in Bootle, there is a near constant chorus of car horns. These are not angry drivers expressing their rage at congestion, but local workers blaring out their support for striking workers at the factory.
This site is responsible for the production of many well-known foods, including Kingsmill crumpets and pancakes. It is not just the dough that is rising here now, however, but workers too.
Workers organised in the Bakers, Food, and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU) at the factory recently started their action with a 48-hour strike on 30-31 May. They are set to walk out again this weekend, from 3-4 June.
This strike, like so many others, is a struggle against real-term pay cuts.
The Bootle workers are fighting back against a pitiful two-year pay offer of 10%. This follows 12 months of negotiation, with numerous offers from the company – none of which met the minimum demands of the union and its members; and all of which were overwhelmingly rejected.
Socialist Appeal supporters stand in solidarity with these striking workers.
Nightshift starting picketing duty #KingsmillStrike pic.twitter.com/oZj0ckHJuT
— Ian Hodson (@IanBFAWU) May 31, 2023
Class divide
Those on the picket line told us how, for years, the company had been squeezing more and more profit from them. For new, younger workers the situation is worse. They have a far inferior pension arrangement compared with the past, for example.
“We have lost our training rates and our bereavement has been cut,” BFAWU branch secretary John Owens told us. “We have to work nights, overtime, and bank holidays, giving up valuable time to get by.”
Calculations by BFAWU have revealed just how low the pay is. “Workers are shocked to find out their pay is on a base rate of just £8.08ph,” the union tweeted. “The consolidated rate, including shift and overtime payments, gives an appearance of an above minimum wage, but it isn’t.”
One worker told the union anonymously:
“We worked through the covid pandemic in difficult working conditions, classed as essential workers, keeping the site open with above average performances. And now we are struggling to feed ourselves and our families.”
The parent company of Allied Bakeries, Associated British Foods (ABF), meanwhile, has the cheek to complain about “economic challenges”.
But their half-yearly results in March show a 17% increase in food business sales, up to £5.3 billion. Overall, the corporation’s revenue was £17 billion, with profit for this period at £684 million.
It is the workers, not the bosses, who face genuine economic challenges.
This stark divide brings to mind Marx’s words on capitalism’s class divide:
“Accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole.”
Solidarity
The strikers have received solidarity from across their union, and more widely from local councillors, MPs, and more. Ian Hodson, national president of the BFAWU, has also attended the picket every day.
“Whilst employers see considerable increase in profits and can protect themselves through price increases,” Hodson stated in a press release put out by the union, “this is not the case for those that work in the food industry”.
Ian quoted from a BFAWU report which showed that the proportion of food workers forced to use food banks has increased by 10% in just three years – from 7.5% during the pandemic to 17.5% now.
This strike highlights in graphic detail the class struggle under capitalism, with a huge monopoly squeezing profits from its workers, at their expense, through exploitation.
Nationalisation
Socialist Appeal comrades send our full solidarity to these workers in their battle for decent pay. Showing militancy and determination, the Bootle bakers are set on winning a real pay rise.
This strike also highlights the need to nationalise the food industry under democratic workers’ control. This would end the scandal of monopolies such as ABF lining their pockets by driving their workers into poverty.
At the end of the day, eating is a basic human need. But under capitalism, all of production is geared towards making profits – to the detriment of all workers, and solely to the benefit of the bosses.
The labour movement must fight for a socialist programme to end this scandalous state of affairs. The working class should rightly reject the mere crumbs being offered by the bosses, and demand not just more bread, but the whole bakery!
Send messages of support via the BFAWU on social media, or using the hashtag #KingsmillStrike
