SPALDING, England — Some 700 workers at the Bakkavor food factory here, members of the Unite trade union, walked out Sept. 27 over demands for higher pay.
When two Militant worker-correspondents visited their lively picket lines Oct. 2, we found some 200 pickets were covering three shift changes. They chanted, blew trumpets and responded with an enthusiastic welcome as passing car drivers sounded their horns in support.
The union members reported that area workers had visited the picket, some bringing food. “They fully deserve a serious pay rise,” three gardeners, who work at a council-run site in the town center, told us.
“There are a number of large food factories in the area and the bulk of workers get the national minimum wage, or thereabouts, just like us,” they said. “You’re not living, just surviving.” This East Midlands region has the second-highest concentration of low-paid workers in the U.K.
Like the Bakkavor workers, the gardeners didn’t want to give their names for fear of retaliation from their bosses. Bakkavor bars workers from speaking to the press.
The multinational, which describes itself as “the” leading provider of fresh-prepared food, employs 18,000 workers in 43 factories internationally, including five in the U.S. It also runs farmland from Spain to China. The company has 21 factories in the U.K. and its customers include Tesco and other major supermarkets. Last month it announced the closure of a factory in Wigan, near Manchester, because of “low margins,” putting some 750 workers in danger of losing their jobs. In an attempt to undermine the Spalding strike, the company is trying to bus in workers from other plants.
Sadie Woodhouse, general manager of the Spalding plant, told the media they had offered a 7.8% raise to the lowest-paid workers, an increase “well above inflation and national living wage.”
The union called the deal an “insult.” “Our members are rightly angry after years of below-inflation pay rises,” Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said.
The “national living wage” is what the government calls the minimum wage for employees aged 21 and over. It currently stands at 11.44 pounds an hour ($15) and is set to increase to 12.10 pounds next April. The company’s offer would raise the lowest-paid workers to 11.60 pounds, just 16 pence (21 cents) above the national minimum.
Most workers on higher grades get one pound an hour more. When the union was offered a 6.4% raise, they voted it down by 95%. After that, the company offered a one-off cash payment of 50 pounds. Unite Regional Secretary Prakash Patel said the offer was just a “pittance,” adding the company “has walked away from negotiations.”
Talk on the picket line wasn’t just about wages. Workers work 12-hour shifts, many in near freezing conditions. They spoke about the challenges of raising a family with those shifts. Others commented on how bosses “bully” the workers. Unite regional officer Sam Hennessy said Bakkavor’s regime is “my way, or the highway.”