Unite has negotiated an inflation busting pay increase for all workers at poultry producer Two Sisters working in its Midlands workplaces. After extensive negotiations an agreement between…Read more…
‘Irresponsible’ show
In an age when children’s lives are often dominated by smartphones, streaming TV and video games, there’s something doubtlessly alluring about the premise of the new hit show Our Yorkshire Farm, a…Read more…
Seven months’ food supply warning
Britain could only sustain itself on home-grown produce for seven months in the event of a Brexit that prevented food from easily being imported from the EU and abroad, according to new research….Read more…
‘Sad state of affairs’
A rural charity is producing a “village survival guide” after a survey revealed that many countryside residents feel isolated and ignored. Unite welcomed the move but said real change to…Read more…
Animal welfare spot checks call
Farm animals are being tortured under Britain’s largest farm approval scheme because only one in a thousand inspections are unannounced, leading Unite to call for more spot checks. Disturbing…Read more…
Bring back AWB call
The annual Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival, held in Dorset each year, commemorates Britain’s first instance of trade unionism, when farmworkers first organised for better pay in 1833. But nearly…Read more…
Reduce the risks call
The nature of the agricultural industry means there will always be a safety risk. Yet those risks can be minimised the fact that this is not happening means that far too many workers die every year…Read more…
Brexit berries threat
One of the UK’s biggest berry farms is moving part of its operations to China because it claims it can’t find enough workers. However, Unite said the agricultural sector would be able to find…Read more…
‘Sense of betrayal’
Unite said it would leave no stone unturned in the fight to save jobs and avert the closure of three poultry plants after 2 Sisters Food Group announced plans to close its Cambuslang site in Scotland…Read more…
Under pressure
Mental health and stress in transport and food workplaces are right at the top of our agenda. Pressure to win contracts through undercutting in the relentless “race to the bottom” translates into…Read more…
A bitter sweet Brexit?
A radical new vision for food and farming was warmly welcomed by the guest speakers and audience who attended the launch this week of a new book that has been published by Unite Education and Pluto…Read more…
Just ‘grow more food’?
Ministers need to stop misleading the public over the impact of a hard Brexit, Unite has said, after transport secretary Chris Grayling claimed farmers could simply grow more food if the UK crashes…Read more…
‘Cautious welcome’
A ‘cautious’ welcome has been given by Unite to a proposed joint venture of two UK poultry heavyweights which will employ 6,000 workers. The merger is between Cargill’s UK fresh chicken…Read more…
Don’t ‘pit workers against workers’
Leaked government proposals to radically curb EU migration after Brexit ‘pits workers against workers’ and risks the country’s food security, Unite has said. A home office document leaked to…Read more…
‘Crops left in the fields’
Britain is leaving the EU during a period when it is more reliant on foreign food than any time in the past 40 years. If the UK had to rely on home-grown food in 2017, supplies would have run…Read more…
Stop Brexit pain
The consequences of a “hard” Brexit have been laid bare in a new report, which shows that manufacturing, agriculture, energy and construction are amongst the sectors which would be hardest hit….Read more…
‘Betrayed and let down’
The workers at Norfolk turkey producers Bernard Matthews ‘feel betrayed and let down’, as 69 chicken production and 59 managerial job losses were confirmed. Unite said that the workers were…Read more…
Hidden horrors of gang working
Two gangmasters have agreed to pay more than £1m to trafficked Lithuanian poultry farm workers, in the first case involving modern slavery to be brought against a British company. The payment…Read more…
‘Organising after the Brexit vote’ event calls for solidarity to fight insecurity at work
Building solidarity between workers, no matter what passport or contract they hold, is a trade union priority after the Brexit vote. That was the message of the TUC event on ‘Organising migrant and…Read more…
Work with the Board
Less than a year ago, the Scottish government did the right thing and decided to retain its Agricultural Wages Board (SAWB) which sets minimum wages and terms and conditions for farm workers. …Read more…