Agricultural workers are underrepresented and largely ignored in the trade union movement. They make up less than 1% of the workforce and are mainly migrants. Recently, however, the workers themselves are organising, supported by grass roots unions.
Since leaving the EU, the UK has struggled to get workers for the low-paid and back-breaking jobs characteristic of the farming industry. The government therefore launched a special scheme- the Seasonal Worker Visa Scheme, which is now set to run until at least 2029.This scheme is for workers who have a job offer in the UK to do seasonal horticulture work or poultry production work with a sponsor who is an approved scheme operator.
In theory, the pay and conditions of these workers is regulated but it is becoming increasingly apparent that the scheme is just a way for employers to exploit workers, maximising their own profits.
Strikes and Support
The United Voices of the World (UVW) is largely a London-based union, focusing its efforts on low- paid and precarious workers, usually migrants. However, in 2023, they responded for a call for help by a worker on a farm in Herefordshire, an official sponsor in the Seasonal Worker Visa Scheme. She is one of 88 Latin American workers who organised the UK's first-ever wild cat strike by seasonal migrant workers on visas in 2023, protesting wage theft, discrimination, harassment and unsafe working conditions at Haygrove Farms.
The workers were recruited in Chile under the UK government's Seasonal Worker Visa scheme and brought claims alleging serious mistreatment and exploitation, including unpaid wages, fewer hours than promised, mounting debt from rent and living costs, and racially discriminatory treatment by supervisors. They argue these conditions amount to modern slavery.
Despite the efforts of the UVW and the workers, the Employment Tribunal refused to hear their case, arguing that time limits had expired. This decision was made even though tribunals having the legal power to extend time limits where it is "just and equitable" and these workers were homeless, undocumented, without income and traumatised after fleeing the farm, following the cancellation of their visas.
The case exposes the structural injustice faced by workers on the Seasonal Worker Visa scheme, who are legally tied to a single employer and prohibited from seeking alternative work even when their rights are violated - a system campaigners say mirrors conditions of servitude.
Fortunately they have now won the right to appeal.
Aida Luna Silvestre, seasonal worker and claimant, said:
"It has been a long wait, but we must keep fighting until the system changes. I have lived this experience first-hand as a worker, and we cannot remain silent - if we do, this system will continue unchanged. The temporary worker visa program needs more opportunities, including the right for workers to switch employers so that those being exploited can seek better conditions. Workers should also have access to unions to learn and protect their rights. The reality of modern slavery is often ignored. People do not see the main issue: how workers are treated on farms and what rights they are entitled to. Many are misled by the advertisements of large farms that promise good treatment and medical access, but this is far from the truth. Most people here simply do not know what workers endure."
Solidarity Across Land Trades (SALT)
This is a new union, which started as an independent initiative, but is now part of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union. It seems that SALT is largely autonomous with its own website (See: https://saltunion.org/). What is unusual about this union is that it organises among volunteers and free lancers, usually focusing on workers in the alternative, agroecological and organic sector.
"Solidarity Across Land Trades (SALT) is a grassroots trade union organising for fairer conditions, solidarity, care and justice. We are a collective of workers, trainees, freelancers, co-op members and volunteers who are employed by others in land-related trades. We fight for better standards of pay, working conditions and cultures within our sectors, support our members with workplace issues and build community between landworkers and wider social justice movements."
SALT achieved its first win on a supposedly ethical dairy farm, which was underpaying its workers, as well as showing cruelty to animals (https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2024-12-19/chrissie-hynde-turns-back-on-ethical-farm-after-animal-welfare-allegations/).
SALT published a very critical report of the alternative agricultural sector based on a survey of their membership: https://saltunion.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/burnt-out-overworked-and-underpaid-salt-report-revised-20th-feb.pdf.
Its focus on volunteers and trainees has also brought it into some conflict with Land Workers Alliance (LWA), the best known organisation campaigning for a radical transformation of the food system. This is because the LWA also includes farms, both rural and urban, who employ workers and who often rely on volunteers and training schemes.
SALT hopes to move beyond organising in the alternative farming sector to organise among workers in the traditional farming industry. They firmly supported the actions of the UVW to organise the migrant workers who predominate in this sector.
They have been very critical of the alternative farming movement which organises the annual Oxford Real Farming Conference.
From an article on their website: https://saltunion.org/at-orfc-2026/
"The situation for farm workers in Britain is dire. LANTRA, the largest provider of land-based training in the UK and Ireland, places a farm worker's expected salary at £14,000 to £18,000 a year - dramatically below the UK median average for 2025 of £39,039 as reported by the Office for National Statistics. Minimum wage work is the norm. Informal contracts with no pension or sick pay are standard. Abuse of every kind is common place. Modern slavery in the sector has been increasingly documented.
Until last year, the UK's alternative agriculture sector was heavily dependent on 'trainees' who were paid an average of £1.41 per hour, if they were paid at all: many worked for room and board in exchange for basic on-the-job training. It was only after campaigning from SALT that these traineeships were outlawed. Yet still some farms persist in offering these positions through novel loopholes.
"One delegate I spoke to, who had been working on farms in alternative agriculture for 10 years and attended the conference on and off in that time, told me that the conversations about workers' rights had made little progress during her decade in the industry. Every year individuals came forward at the conference with stories of abuse and malpractice, often at the hands of those same well-known farmers continuously given panel positions (which as a trade union we can attest to as many workers bringing their cases to us are from the stalwarts of organic farming). Nothing would shift. The difference now is that for the first time those voices are forming collectives."
Building an effective movement for justice
We need to go well-beyond organising workers within the current system. Agricultural land is largely privately owned, just like other resources. When someone owns land, they use it to make profit for themselves. Given the labour-intensive nature of much land-based work, the owners will seek to pay workers as little as possible. The only solution is to actually place the land into collective stewardship, such that land is used for the common good, controlled and managed by those who do the work. And, links need to be made directly with people who eat the food produced, side-lining the supermarkets who exploit both producers and consumers.
For more information about land reform and transformation of the food system see: Manifesto for Land Justice available to download at www.peopleslandpolicy.org.
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/jackdaw_low-res.pdf
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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