“The next Autumn Statement must begin by investing in people, raising wages, guaranteeing food security, and putting power back in the hands of workers.”
By Sarah Woolley, General Secretary, Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union
As Parliament returns from the TUC and Labour Party Conference season, workers across the country are bracing for yet another difficult winter. Prices remain stubbornly high, wages have failed to catch up, and bills continue to rise. Despite Government claims that “inflation is falling,” there is no sign of the cost-of-living crisis abating for ordinary people and certainly not for the members of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU) who produce and serve the food that keeps this country going.
For our members, the cost-of-living crisis is not an abstract debate about economic indicators, it is a daily struggle to make ends meet. In workplaces across the food sector, low pay, insecure hours, and unsafe conditions are pushing people to breaking point. Many are working two jobs and still relying on food banks. Others are skipping meals so their children can eat. These are the real consequences of an economic model that treats workers as costs to be cut rather than people who deserve dignity and security.
At the Arise Festival fringe meeting on fighting poverty, I said that no worker in one of the richest countries on earth should be going hungry and I stand by that. Poverty is not inevitable. It is a political choice. The policies that have got us here austerity, deregulation, and the deliberate weakening of trade unions were choices made by governments that prioritised profit over people. Reversing that means making a new set of choices that put workers and communities first.
As we approach the Autumn Statement, one of the key demands the Government and indeed the Labour leadership should be making central is a real pay rise for workers, starting with a genuine £15 an hour minimum wage. That must not be left to market forces or voluntary pledges. It should be a legal right, underpinned by strong collective bargaining so that working people can negotiate fair pay across industries. Low pay is at the root of the cost-of-living crisis and raising it is the single most effective way to lift millions out of poverty and to rebuild a fair economy.
Alongside pay, we need to tackle the structural insecurity that traps so many in poverty. Zero-hour contracts, fake self-employment, and casualisation are endemic in our sector. Workers need guaranteed hours, secure contracts, and the right to join and be represented by a union without fear of victimisation. A fair economy cannot be built on precarious work.
But this isn’t only about wages and contracts. It’s about the broader system that allows food poverty, energy poverty, and housing poverty to exist in the first place. We need a government willing to take decisive action: price controls on essentials, investment in social housing, the restoration of a fully funded welfare safety net, and public ownership of key utilities so that people can afford to live with dignity. The current model where corporations make record profits while families choose between heating and eating is morally bankrupt.
For BFAWU members, the fight against poverty is the fight for justice at work and in society. Our campaigns for a £15 minimum wage, for healthy and safe workplaces, and for the right to food are all part of the same struggle. The right to food means not only that everyone should be able to access nutritious, affordable food but that the workers who grow, bake, process, and serve that food must be paid and treated fairly. That principle should underpin every part of the Government’s cost-of-living policy.
The trade union movement has shown that when workers stand together, we can win. From food production to retail, transport to care, we’ve seen strikes and campaigns delivering better pay and conditions. But we shouldn’t have to fight workplace by workplace to win what should be guaranteed by law. A government that is serious about ending the cost-of-living crisis must strengthen, not sideline, collective bargaining giving unions real power to negotiate on behalf of working people across the economy.
Rachel Reeves has said she wants to deliver “securonomics” an economy built on stability and fairness. That can only mean one thing: putting workers at the heart of decision-making. The test of that commitment will not be in soundbites but in action. Will we see bold measures to raise pay, rebuild public services, and expand trade union rights or another round of cautious management of decline?
The coming months are an opportunity to show whose side our political leaders are on. For too long, working people have carried the burden of an economy rigged against them. The next Autumn Statement must begin to change that by investing in people, raising wages, guaranteeing food security, and putting power back in the hands of workers.
If we are serious about ending the cost-of-living crisis, we must build a society where every worker earns enough to live, every family can afford to eat and heat their home, and no one is left behind. That’s not too much to ask it’s the least that working people deserve.
- Sarah Woolley is the General Secretary of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU). You can follow her on Twitter/X; and follow the BFAWU on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram.
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While I agree with what you are saying, please don’t forget the pensioners who are also struggling for food and warmth!