Trade Union Unite has announced that activists will step up pressure on MPs to oppose the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board when they vote on the board's future later this month.

Simon Wright, Lib Dem MP for Norwich South, and Eastbourne MP Stephen Lloyd will both be lobbied this week ahead of a House of Commons vote on the government's amendment to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, which would abolish the AWB if passed. The board, England and Wales' last surviving wage board, fell victim to the 'bonfire of the quangos' launched by the government upon taking office in 2010.

The AWB negotiates wages and terms of employment for 150,000 agricultural workers in England and Wales. Opposition to abolition is rife, with 60 percent of responses to the government consultation on the issue presenting the case for retention and the Welsh government suggesting it could implement a similar pay board if Whitehall presses ahead with AWB closure.  

The Welsh government and farming industry feel particularly aggrieved by the Coalition's actions; Welsh AMs accused the government in December of "circumventing" their input in decision making by adding the amendment to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill hours before Parliament broke up for Christmas, instead of a public bodies bill as had previously been suggested. Both the Cardiff government and the majority of the Welsh farming industry groups oppose closure.   

On Thursday Unite members will be presenting letters to the offices of Wright and Lloyd, calling on the MPs to oppose AWB closure. The union claims that the government's proposals would "bring poverty wages to the countryside" if they are allowed to stand. 

Members and supporters are planning a march through Norwich ahead of the delivery to Simon Wright, whilst union members have said they will assemble outside the constituency offices in Eastbourne.

Unite national officer for agriculture Julia Long said the union is focusing lobbying activities on a "key group of Liberal Democrats that could scupper this retrograde step being promoted by their coalition partners."

She added, "Unite will be campaigning strongly in the run-up to the vote to retain the Agricultural Wages Board. Supermarkets and the growers, who supply them, are behind the Agricultural Wages Board’s abolition proposal as they want to drive down workers' wages to poverty levels."