BFAWU Response to Scotland Food & Drink Announcement

The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union welcomes this recognition of the importance of Scotland’s food and drink sector. But we want to make clear in a way that Food and Drink Scotland do not. The food industry is built on the hard work and skill of more than 123,000 workers across the country. 

The £19 billion turnover and £7 billion added in value announced, mask a far harsher reality for the people whose labour actually creates that wealth.

Food workers remain on low pay, insecure contracts, and face chronic understaffing, long hours, unsafe conditions and are struggling to heat their homes, feed their families, and keep up with rising living costs because of low wages and insecure working conditions, at the same time as Food and Drink Scotland proclaims this record £19bn turnover.  

These realities for food workers are the direct result of a sector whose profits are too often built on squeezing workers rather than valuing them. Tragically, workers  are not sharing in the success they create. Rising turnover means nothing if the very people producing Scotland’s food cannot afford the food they make.

If the industry is serious about “sustainable growth” and “supporting businesses of all sizes”, then the most practical, achievable step it can take is ensuring workers are respected, paid a real living wage, and protected at work. That starts with union recognition and a commitment to collective bargaining across the sector.

Unionised workplaces are safer, fairer, and more productive. Collective agreements ensure that growth is not achieved by driving down wages or conditions. If Scotland wants a food and drink industry that is genuinely resilient and sustainable and that we can properly be proud of, it must be built on decent jobs, not low pay, not insecurity, and not exploitation.

The BFAWU stands ready to work with employers, government, and industry bodies to ensure that the sector’s economic success is matched by social responsibility. But we will also continue organising on the ground to make sure workers have a real voice. No industry can call itself a success while the people at its heart are left behind. If Scotland’s food and drink sector is thriving, then Scotland’s food workers must thrive too and that will only happen when the workforce is unionised, valued, and fairly rewarded.