Recent “what about the farmworkers?” correspondence in relation to The Archers (Letters, 6, 10 and 13 October) strikes a chord.
Back in the 1970s as an officer of the agricultural workers’ union, the NUAAW, I raised just this point with the late Anthony Parkin, agricultural adviser to The Archers, following complaints from union branches that the everyday story of country folk was dominated by antique dealers and farmers/landowners, while the hired workers were generally portrayed as idiots.
By chance Mike Tucker was just about to jack it in as NUAAW branch secretary, so when Neil Carter took on the role, the programme responded by having him go on a course for new branch officers in Eastbourne. Neil was soon involved as a well-trained union rep working for his members in Ambridge, including an industrial tribunal when the execrable Brian Aldridge chinned a worker.
However, a letter in the Daily Telegraph, complaining of “naked trade unionism” in The Archers, saw the BBC run for cover and trade union storylines disappear. Since then the employers’ National Farmers Union (NFU) has had a clear run.
How come Archers listeners heard nothing about the Unite (now the farmworkers’ union), TUC and Labour party campaign to prevent the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board? This NFU-inspired government move in 2013 removed 154,000 permanent workers and an estimated quarter of a million seasonal workers from 60 years of legal pay protection. It also stole £250m from farm and horticultural workers to line the pockets of their employers and supermarkets.
When I phoned Parkin’s successor, Graham Harvey, to raise these things, he was always on the other line. It was the NFU’s.
Chris Kaufman
Former leader of the workers’ side (2004-10), Agricultural Wages Board
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