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Getting Election Ready:  Making the Hunger Crisis a Key Issue
Dr Michael Calderbank Dr Michael Calderbank

Getting Election Ready:  Making the Hunger Crisis a Key Issue

In January 2024 the Food and Work Network (FAWN) entered the belly of the beast, and headed into the Westminster Parliament for a discussion on “Keeping the Hunger Crisis on the Agenda: At the General Election and Beyond”, in an event sponsored by Ian Byrne MP.

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Rosa Luxemburg Foundation/ BFAWU Course Review
FAWN Team FAWN Team

Rosa Luxemburg Foundation/ BFAWU Course Review

In March 2020, my employer, the pub chain JD Wetherspoon was forced to shut its pubs immediately when the UK lockdown began. Government furlough payment plans were still being finalised, but unlike many other hospitality industry employers, JD Wetherspoon refused to pay its staff while they waited for the furlough money to come through. At that time no one knew how long that would take. The advice given to staff in a video sent to us from boss Tim Martin was to get a job at Tesco.

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Ian Mearns: “Fighting the Corner for Food Workers”
Ian Mearns Ian Mearns

Ian Mearns: “Fighting the Corner for Food Workers”

This blog is the address from Ian Mearns, MP for Gateshead to the Annual Conference of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union 12th June 2023. He updated conference on the main debates and developments from the BFAWU Parliamentary Group during the last year.

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Food workers and Low pay
Tommy Kane Tommy Kane

Food workers and Low pay

In 2021 Unity Consulting Scotland conducted a membership survey on behalf of the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU).  Survey results showed a clear link between low pay, insecure work and food insecurity. This was the catalyst for the creation of the Food and Work Network (FAWN) and in this blog we examine the appalling behaviour of two major food production companies towards their former employees.

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Community Restaurants to Universal Rights: food as an intersectional struggle
Michael Calderbank Michael Calderbank

Community Restaurants to Universal Rights: food as an intersectional struggle

The third of the Food and Work Network’s (FAWN’s) series of ‘knowledge exchange’ workshops took place at Liverpool Hope University in February 2023. Funded by the British Academy-Leverhulme Trust, this workshop brought together academics researching aspects of the food system in the UK, along with trade unionists and community activists with lived experience to share their knowledge and insight into how access to food can be problematic.

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