Nearly a hundred workers and their families took to the streets of Norris Green, Liverpool on Saturday 17th June, in a protest against almost 200 redundancies at Liverpool bakers Sayers. They called on the company to invest in the site to help improve efficiency, rather than make the redundancies.
Sayers wants to sack half of its staff so they can increase profits, and will move some work to its other bases. They also closed down its pension fund, a move which has angered the workforce. Sayers’ announcement was made in April, just months after the company signed a £2m deal to become a Capital of Culture partner.
Local Labour MP Bob Wareing showed up and took part in the demonstration. He commented that:
"The workers are going to fight on in the hope of reversing the decision. Whether this will happen or not, I am not sure at this juncture. But I will certainly keep putting pressure on the Government to try to save these people's jobs."
It’s not the first time that Wareing has ‘put pressure’ on the government, but his Campaign group is a tiny minority within the Parliamentary Labour Party, and has next to no influence.
He added: "All the Government is offering is to get Job Centre Plus to discuss the futures of some of the workers who could be made redundant. I don't think this is satisfactory.
"The Government won't interfere because this is a commercial decision. But it is also a social decision, because it is the taxpayers who end up footing the bill."
Wareing’s comments show that he does not understand modern economics. Like Thatcher and Major before them, Blair and Brown believe that the government should not intervene in industry, leaving business to ‘regulate itself’ – or do whatever will make it the most money. Old Labour types like Wareing believe in limited government intervention – like that started by the Labour governments of 1945, but this is no longer an alternative since the international market would never allow it to succeed.
The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) are the main union on the site, and they organised Saturday's march in a bid to show the strength of feeling among employees and to try to get the company to change its mind about the job cuts.
Marching is a start and it gets the union in the papers, but it amounts to little more than a symbolic gesture since profit-hungry businesses cannot listen to the pleas of ordinary people. The only solution is for workers to organise on an international basis to take over the factories and other workplaces. Until they do that, the bosses will keep picking us off one by one, setting workers from different regions against each other.
Local Labour MP Bob Wareing showed up and took part in the demonstration. He commented that:
"The workers are going to fight on in the hope of reversing the decision. Whether this will happen or not, I am not sure at this juncture. But I will certainly keep putting pressure on the Government to try to save these people's jobs."
It’s not the first time that Wareing has ‘put pressure’ on the government, but his Campaign group is a tiny minority within the Parliamentary Labour Party, and has next to no influence.
He added: "All the Government is offering is to get Job Centre Plus to discuss the futures of some of the workers who could be made redundant. I don't think this is satisfactory.
"The Government won't interfere because this is a commercial decision. But it is also a social decision, because it is the taxpayers who end up footing the bill."
Wareing’s comments show that he does not understand modern economics. Like Thatcher and Major before them, Blair and Brown believe that the government should not intervene in industry, leaving business to ‘regulate itself’ – or do whatever will make it the most money. Old Labour types like Wareing believe in limited government intervention – like that started by the Labour governments of 1945, but this is no longer an alternative since the international market would never allow it to succeed.
The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) are the main union on the site, and they organised Saturday's march in a bid to show the strength of feeling among employees and to try to get the company to change its mind about the job cuts.
Marching is a start and it gets the union in the papers, but it amounts to little more than a symbolic gesture since profit-hungry businesses cannot listen to the pleas of ordinary people. The only solution is for workers to organise on an international basis to take over the factories and other workplaces. Until they do that, the bosses will keep picking us off one by one, setting workers from different regions against each other.