AS BRITAIN prepares for a general election the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) has produced a manifesto for progressive change based on feedback from our members who took part in a wide-ranging survey.

These are the policies our members would like to see embraced by political parties in their manifestos.

The forthcoming election comes against a growing sense of national decline and the relentless dismantling of public services, the welfare state and the wider social fabric that has been hard won through the decades of campaigns and struggles fought by the labour and trade union movement.

Set against this Tory decline and the context of multiple crises facing the country, we asked our members about the issues that matter to them most whether in their workplace or wider issues affecting them and their families and communities.

The results show how politically engaged our members are. The survey data shows how the vast majority of members are registered to vote and will use their vote in the general election.

The issues affecting BFAWU members reflect the concerns of the wider population. The cost-of-living crisis that is affecting people’s ability to pay for basic needs such as food, energy and housing is the single biggest concern facing members. Access to NHS services, the lack of affordable housing and low pay are also big issues.

Other issues concerning our members include access to dental services, crime, anti-social behaviour, public transport and social care. Their wider political awareness and solidarity towards others does not stop at these shores, however. The ongoing slaughter of innocents in Gaza has also prompted our members to call for the suspension of arms sales to Israel.

Issues that affect members in their workplace include (again) low pay, poor treatment from management (which we often find is code for bullying and an authoritarian management style), health and safety, unsociable hours, low sick pay, insecure work, workload and insufficient staff in place to cope with demands. In short, according to BFAWU members they are being asked to do more work, more unsociable hours, and are on insecure contracts with a reduced staffing cohort and low pay.

Critically, our members have set out what they believe is necessary to help address the issues that are confronting them in their communities and workplaces. They have linked the cost-of-living crisis facing them with ownership of utilities and believe that water, energy and Royal Mail should be taken back into public ownership.

In relation to their employment and the low pay that many experience, they resoundingly support a £15-an-hour minimum wage and 100 per cent sick pay from day one for every worker. They also support the ending of zero-hours contracts and the youth rate on the national minimum wage and want to see legislation introduced for a maximum temperature in the workplace.

Our members want to see more investment in the food industry, a right to food (in the knowledge that they or their colleagues will have experienced food insecurity due to low pay and insecure work) and the removal of anti-union legislation, which makes it difficult for unions to organise and recruit and ultimately which prevents unions from being able to negotiate on the behalf of workers to improve their pay, terms and conditions at work.

BFAWU members also want to see the creation of a national care service and an end to university fees that act as a barrier to working-class young people considering, let alone being able to enter, higher education.

It is more than likely that the Labour Party will form the next government. Our union wants to see Labour uphold its historical mission and deliver for our members and all workers. In government and faced with the reality of the crises that so many people in this country are experiencing, there will be an expectation on them to address them and come up with solutions that meet the needs of the working class.

The Labour Party has been the natural home of our members in the past and for many it still is, but support among our membership has decreased for Labour. Emerging from this survey therefore is a strong message from our members to the Labour Party that it should not take our members for granted.

In power, it must act and legislate in the interests of our people. It must not dilute its New Deal for Working People and it must make work better paid, and more secure and ensure that trade unions are not impeded in representing workers. It has to tackle the housing crisis, end the cost-of-living crisis and nationalise our essential public utilities in water and energy.

We have offered in our Bakers’ Dozen manifesto good, common-sense, fair and constructive hopeful suggestions, which if implemented would benefit our members and every other worker across Britain.

We urge the Labour Party in particular to pay attention and take on board our manifesto. If not and we end up with more of the same without tangible and noticeable change for workers and the working class of this country, then Labour under Keir Starmer will let down working-class people and already be sowing the seeds of their own future electoral demise.

The BFAWU Bakers’ Dozen manifesto launch takes place tomorrow, Tuesday May 14, at 5.15pm in Committee Room 13, House of Commons. Enter by Cromwell Green entrance. To attend, register at www.bit.ly/BFAWU24.

Speakers include Rebecca Long Bailey MP, Chris Stephens MP, Lord John Hendy KC and BFAWU president Ian Hodson. Chair: BFAWU general secretary Sarah Woolley.