Elections: What happens when Farage comes to your workplace

Hospitality worker in Merthyr Tydfil

On 16 April, Nigel Farage and his team, including the Welsh Reform leader and Senedd candidate Dan Thomas, came to Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales on the election campaign trail.

Unfortunately my workplace was one of the hospitality venues they used to publicise their campaign of division and hate, and the senior management equally capitalised on the chance to increase their popularity on social media and promote that Farage was in town. That attempt to do so has since made the national press and meant that the staff of our site, some from immigrant and LGBT+ backgrounds, including myself, were affected by this stunt.

Public backlash

The managing director specifically used Instagram to publicise the fact that Farage and his team were “interested in our pancakes”. The mistake here is that he and my other manager came from a position of not wanting to discriminate against Farage politically, yet they also ignored an important layer of people in their decision making – the working class and their own staff who have come to Wales to find a better future.

After he published his reel on Instagram, the people of Merthyr commented on how the town is rich in socialist history and it was a disgrace that Farage was allowed to come into my workplace, yet supporters of Farage commented that ‘it was a dismissible offence not to serve the politician’, clearly showing their lack of knowledge on how workers’ rights actually work!

Unionising our workplaces

Since his apology to staff, my managing director has contradicted himself, saying the workplace is not about politics, but also agrees that not having a political opinion is the reason that he performed such a damaging stunt that affected staff.

It is time to strike whilst the iron is hot and have these exact conversations about politics with people who may feel divided by Reform’s policies, and highlight that the Senedd elections in May are an ideal chance for workers’ voices to be heard. We’re standing Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidates in Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf (Cardiff North and East) and Gŵyr Abertawe (Swansea and Gower).

We also need serious conversations about unionising our workplace!