From Pie Factories to Academies

Last year at RF Brookes, a pie and pizza factory in South Wigston, it was announced that four hundred of their 720 employees would be made redundant (in two phases in September 2011 and June 2012). Under the ownership of Premier Foods, the first set of lay-offs went according to plan, with workers paid two and a half weeks redundancy pay for every year of employment.

Last December 2 Sisters however then bought the factory from Premier Foods, and the workers new (tax-avoiding) boss proceeded to slash their terms and conditions. After the workers took outstanding strike action to force 2 Sisters’ hand, the bakery workers union (BFAWU) is now engaged in a legal battle against 2 Sisters’ illegal action; while in the meantime 350 staff are now in the desperate situation of having to await official confirmation of their redundancy terms. To top off this ongoing abuse, yesterday the RF Brookes workers worst fears were confirmed when it was announced that their factory was to be closed down.

Although the stated reason for the factory lay-offs and now closure was a loss of a pie contract with Marks and Spencer, a more likely explanation is that capitalist food manufacturers are simply engaged in a race to the bottom, where cutting costs is prioritised above all else. For profit hungry managers this naturally means cutting jobs, and then cutting the pay of any remaining employees.

2 Sisters is not alone in this destructive race, and Marks & Spencer, which currently serves as the sole recipient of RF Brookes’ food produce, is likewise cutting production costs by locating cheaper suppliers. In this latest instance it turned out that the cheapest supplier for the aforementioned pie contract was Samworth Brothers Ltd.

Samworth Brothers are a Leicestershire-based food manufacturer most famous for being the largest maker of certified Melton Mowbray pork pies. Samworth Brothers currently employs over 8,000 people, however, what is most interesting about this company is their bosses evangelical commitment to privatising education.

The epic problems being caused by the business-worlds headlong rush to profit from our children’s education are of course obvious to the public, but this doesn’t prevent politicians (be they Labour or otherwise) from ignoring their voters to kowtow to their party’s primary financiers, big business.

Since retiring from his successful business in mid-2005 the successful pie-magnate, Sir David Samworth, has become the proud owner of three academies: Samworth Enterprise Academy (which replaced May Linwood Comprehensive School), Samworth Chuch Academy (which is situated in the old Sherwood Hall School buildings), and Nottingham University Samworth Academy (erected on the site of the existing William Sharp School in Bilborough). Here Samworth Enterprise Academy can boast of being Leicester’s first academy, opening their doors for business in 2007, while the Samworth Church Academy and Nottingham University Samworth Academy opened in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

David Samworth is well-connected in Tory industrialist circles and is a member of the secretive pressure group known as the Midlands Industrial Council, which can only help him win favour in the political realm. No doubt such connections helped him bring together the all-star cast of money-makers for his Samworth Enterprise Academy. A “school” run in collaboration with the Church of England Diocese of Leicester, and whose web site boast that their “specialism of Business and Enterprise, with a focus on food, is used to develop the skills of our pupils in order to enable them to access future working life.”

Some of the notable figures serving on the Samworth Enterprise Academy’s board of governors include their chairman, Richard Brucciani of local coffee shop fame, their vice chair John Day, who is the chairman of the Leicestershire Chamber of Commerce, and Vicky Vass, the pro vice chancellor of De Montfort University.

Yet the Academy’s most intriguing governor is boarding-school educated Caroline Whitty, who has spent most of her career working as a personnel manager of food manufacturers; initially for Northern Foods (1984-97) and then for Samworth Brothers (1997-2005).

Since David Samworth retired to work full-time on helping do his bit to undermine the public education system, Whitty has been “responsible for representing him in all aspects of the development and delivery of his three East Midlands based academies.” In addition, since 2010, Whitty has also been the executive director of the Independent Academies Association.

More than anything, Whitty’s work for the Independent Academies Association confirms the Labour Party’s ongoing commitment to selling our children’s education to the highest bidder. I say this because the honorary president of the Independent Academies Association is none other than Lord Andrew Adonis, who was minister for schools and secretary of state for transport under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Currently Lord Adonis just so happens to be the chairman of a right-wing New Labour pressure group which ironically goes by the name, Progress. Formed in 1996 by Peter Mandelson, this group receives most of its funding from Lord David Sainsbury, and of particular significance to the residents of Leicester, Liz Kendall, Labour MP for Leicester West, is counted among their vice chairs.

Notes

For further critical information on the ongoing privitisation of the British education system, see Melissa Benn’s excellent book School Wars: The Battle for Britain’s Education (Verso Books, 2011). This book which is available to borrow from the Leicester Council library system was reviewed in the January 2012 edition of Socialism Today, see “The Con-Dem’s education counter-attack.” Also see Francis Beckett’s book The Great City Academy Fraud (Continuum, 2007), and the National Union of Teachers’ pamphlets “Academies: Looking Beyond the Spin.” (2007) and “Free Schools: Beyond the Spin of Government Policy” (2010).