SUPERMARKET giants should be banned from raising food prices when production costs fall, Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) general secretary Sarah Woolley said today.

Industry watchdogs should get beefed-up powers to prevent customers and workers being exploited from “rocket and feather” pricing, she said.

This is when supermarkets raise prices when food manufacturing costs rise but keep them high after they go back down, she explained.

Speaking to the Morning Star at BFAWU’s annual conference in Staffordshire, she said: “When you see petrol prices rocket, they then come down — you don’t see that with bread, cake, food in general do you? 

“Our members in the industry are then hit by a double whammy — so not only are they having their terms and conditions and wages squeezed because of the pressure through that supply chain, they are also trying to find more money to pay for food.

“There’s got to be some regulation around pricing. We can’t be in a position where supermarkets are saying to the supply chain you’ve got to take one or two pence off your products but then at the same time they are adding one or two pence on that product in the store.

“If shareholders are still reaping millions of pounds off of dividends then there’s definitely money there to put in the pockets of workers, in the pockets of the supply chain and protecting those workers too.”

The union leader also warned that private equity acquisitions are threatening the existence of Britain’s entire food manufacturing sector, accusing Morrisons’ US private equity group owner CD&R of asset-stripping.

She said: “I truly believe that in 10 years’ time the supermarket that always championed that they manufactured everything themselves won’t have any of that.”

Ms Woolley said she uncovered outsourcing by CD&R when she entered redundancy negotiations for the closure of Morrisons’ Rathbones Bakery in Wakefield last November.

“It was the worst redundancy process I’ve ever done, it was horrid,” she said.

“I think our factory was the starting point of them outsourcing everything.

“I think it’s all about profit. It’s all about what can we strip out, what can we outsource, how do we reduce our liabilities and still have money to come in and that’s exactly what they’ve done with Rathbones.”

The Competition and Markets Authority and Morrisons were contacted for comment.