BAKERS’ union president Ian Hodson called for a general strike against government austerity yesterday, at the opening of their annual conference in Southport.

Mr Hodson told Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) delegates that  the time had come for all-out action.

He said: “My message to Frances O’Grady and the TUC is this: We’ve done the marches, attended the rallies and got nowhere. Snappy sound-bites and raising awareness guff has achieved nothing. Stop beating about the bush and make the call for a general strike.”

He singled out food employers such as 2 Sisters Food Group founder Ranjit Boparan for criticism and warned supermarket bosses and others that the union would strike if members’ livelihoods were threatened.

The billionaire businessman founded the West Midlands-based 2 Sisters Food Group in 1993 and it now turns over an annual profit of £3 billion. It is being investigated by the union’s parliamentary group headed by John McDonnell MP over asset-stripping, redundancies and minimal redundancy pay.

Mr Hodson said: “Mr Boparan’s business model is nothing more than asset-stripping, which leaves companies and people tossed aside with total disregard.

“To those employers who freeze or cut our pay — we will strike. Reduce our terms and conditions — we will strike. Attack our health and safety — we will strike. Bring in slave labour workfare schemes — we will strike.”

He criticised the government’s lax approach to health and safety, highlighting that one worker dies every 15 seconds in the world as a result of poor working conditions.

“The fact is that more people are killed at work than on the battlefield, yet this is never reported in the mainstream media,” he said.

Despite the tough economic and political climate, the BFAWU president urged members to look to Hovis workers successful strike against zero-hours contracts last year and the global fast food workers’ campaign calling for a living wage.

He added: “The trade union movement will be judged as to how it responds to these challenges. The bottom line is there are close to seven million trade union members in the UK that would be virtually unstoppable if mobilised.”