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.