STRIKES by underpaid food workers at Allied Bakeries in Merseyside are a “good reminder of the power of the collective,” bakers’ union leader Sarah Woolley said today.

Opening the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU)’s 2023 conference in Staffordshire, the general secretary hailed the strikers’ “fantastic” work, with older and younger unionists coming together to “ensure they are paid what they are worth.”

Staff at Allied Bakeries’ Bootle factory, which makes products for many household brands including Kingsmill bread, launched the first of two 48-hour walkouts over plummeting take-home wages late last month.

The union, which recently warned nearly a fifth of the 15,000 food workers it represents are relying on foodbanks, has slammed Allied and its parent company Associated British Foods for “boasting about their profits and shareholder rewards” during the dispute.

Speaking at Yarnfield Park conference centre in Stone, Ms Woolley added: “Those who have been there for years are coming together with younger, newer workers to make a stand.

“They are ensuring those that come after them are not paid the minimum wage, but are paid what they are worth.”

She urged all members to “fight together to maintain and rebuild our special union.”

Referring to declining union membership nationwide, Ms Woolley said the labour movement needs to “look at ourselves,” reach out to younger workers and make unions a safe space for women and ethnic minorities.

BFAWU national president Ian Hodson stressed “solidarity is needed to stop the bosses winning” and warned members: “If we don’t fight, they aren’t going to give us anything.”

He slammed the “greed at the top” of Britain’s increasingly unequal society and condemned Tory ministers and the right-wing press for attempting to blame poor people and migrants.

“It was never a migrant that sold a council house — that was a Tory government policy that was continued under [New] Labour.

“It was never a migrant that introduced zero-hour contracts — that was politicians in Westminster paying back the employers which funded their campaigns.

“Every decision that impacts your life is made by a politician and not desperate refugees coming here seeking asylum.”

Member Dougie Johnston echoed the intervention and called on fellow delegates to fight back, saying: “Power concedes nothing without demands.”