Pick For Britain: UK workers needed as foreign workers flown into UK amid crisis in farming sector

[ska invita]

"The government is to ask millions of university students and furloughed workers to pick fruit and veg amid the coronavirus crisis in a national “Pick for Britain” campaign next week.

The pandemic and its restrictions on travel means farms will no longer be able to rely on temporary staff, many of whom come from Eastern Europe each year to harvest crops."

Government To Ask Millions Of Students And Furloughed Workers To Pick Fruit And Veg

Farms won't be able to recruit seasonal fruit and veg pickers from Europe, so those at a loose end will be asked to step in under the 'Pick for Britain' scheme.

m.huffingtonpost.co.uk

The National Farmers Union (NFU) believes up to 95% of the usual 70,000-strong seasonal workforce may be lost, and that UK-based employees unable to do their day-today jobs will need to step in.


This will be interesting. Do you reckon they'll fill the posts?

 

[dessiato]

My first thought is no, I'd not volunteer. But food will need to be harvested, and for the benefit of everyone.

I would be very reluctant because of the attitudes of farmers, and others, to the people who used to do it. Although perhaps not essential in the way that, for example, health care staff are, they are in their own way also essential.

 

[Cloo]

Hard to tell - many people may be willing to do it for a change of scene and to do a service, for others the whole concept may just be really alien. Looking at the article using resources that gather info about availability of people seems a sensible idea. I don't know how they'll deal with putting people up - from what I gather, Eastern European pickers often live in a pretty rough and ready way in outhouses and other crappy spots on a farm.

I wouldn't do it myself as I have a dodgy hip and kids that need looking after, but for younger people it could well be a goer - there's enough people out of work that they could fill the posts, that's for sure, especially if they make allowances for people on furlough.

 

[gentlegreen]

I might be prepared to do it as I'm about to retire as a healthy 60 year-old ... I was wondering about supermarket shelf-stacking - but I imagine there would be lots of people actually needing the work - plus I would be squeamish handling meat...

 

[bimble]

They’d have to pay proper money to have a chance of getting the fruit picked I think . So maybe fewer and much more expensive strawberries in the shops this summer.

 

[Pickman's model]

Loads of strawberries from Spain in the shops, and very nice they are too

 

[gosub]

I might be prepared to do it as I'm about to retire as a healthy 60 year-old ... I was wondering about supermarket shelf-stacking - but I imagine there would be lots of people actually needing the work - plus I would be squeamish handling meat...

Heard this yesterday, its 9 years old but reckon they had more retirees doing it than young people. Just googled wages looks to 8.13-10.00ph

 

[The39thStep]

Used to do this in the holidays when I was at secondary school , that and potato picking. It was very popular.

 

[mx wcfc]

They’d have to pay proper money to have a chance of getting the fruit picked I think . So maybe fewer and much more expensive strawberries in the shops this summer.

When I was little, we used to go to a farm on Sunday morning and pick our own strawberries. You paid for a punnet, and picked as many as you could get in it, whilst stuffing your gob with them at the same time. It was a thing. Soft fruit growers would put a big sign up saying "Pick your own...." and then hang a sign underneath depending on what was ripe. On one farm outside Cookham, some wag nicked the sign and painted "Nose".
This was when strawberries were a special treat for a few weeks in summer.

 

[Duncan2]

Suppose there is some financial incentive also if,as appears to be the case,you would be earning NMW picking fruit and get to keep your furlough money on top of that.

 

[The39thStep]

Loads of strawberries from Spain in the shops, and very nice they are too

I wonder how they are picking them in Spain with the restrictions?

 

[Proper Tidy]

I've done potato picking, it's fucking hard work. Tbh I think relying on labour that doesn't need the wage will mean not that much work will get done/high churn, but maybe not if people see it as a doing their bit thing

 

[The39thStep]

I've done potato picking, it's fucking hard work. Tbh I think relying on labour that doesn't need the wage will mean not that much work will get done/high churn, but maybe not if people see it as a doing their bit thing

Tt was hardwork , same with strawbwberry picking however a lot of the latter is now grown on trestles so no scrabbling about on your arse or knees anymore.

 

[InfoBurner]

Pay a decent wage for back breaking labour and the job's a good 'un .

After the Black Death, serf labour was at a premium. Barons fighting for labour etc.

£ 17 an hour. and we'd pick that shit, proper breaks, full employment rights. Unionised. Value us. (We can dream)

 

[gosub]

Pay a decent wage for back breaking labour and the job's a good 'un .

After the Black Death, serf labour was at a premium. Barons fighting for labour etc.

£ 17 an hour. and we'd pick that shit, proper breaks, full employment rights. Unionised. Value us. (We can dream)

Assuming doubling the cost of labour only adds 50% to the cost of food, the maths mean you come out behind over a year

 

[Gramsci]

For years these businesmen farmers exploitiated cheap labour from other poorer EU countries.

Now they have lost that cheap workforce they are getting government to make it look like picking the fruit is for the national interest. Not about them keeping there business going.

Nothing in the Huffington article about wages or conditions of work I notice.

We arent all in this together. Im really starting to hate this side of the pandemic.

 

[Part 2]

Fruit picking was big round our way when I was a kid. My mates dad worked in the dole and used to hide in the fields, supposedly watching for people who signed on but more than often was so pissed he fell asleep on the job.

Some of my sons mates already do the fruit and flower picking. My impression is they're treated like shit by the farmers but they like the transient lifestyle and seem to give as good as they get.

 

[Saul Goodman]

I've done potato picking, it's fucking hard work.

We've gone through the industrial age since then. Machines do this for us now

 

[oryx]

Used to do this in the holidays when I was at secondary school , that and potato picking. It was very popular.

Yes, me too - but only for a few days at the most.

It was fun and the money to us as teens was useful but I wonder if I'd have felt differently if I'd HAD to do it to support myself.

 

[Proper Tidy]

We've gone through the industrial age since then. Machines do this for us now

This was after the harvester cos the share wouldn't get all the spuds up, they'd get agency staff in to manually pick what was left. Maybe they had a shit harvester but there were a couple of big farms that used to take on day workers for it, probably still do

 

[lizzieloo]

I'd volunteer but then my local farm is a 3 minute walk away, I wouldn't if it meant getting into a van with loads of other peeky, sleep deprived looking people, like it always used to in the olden-days

 

[SpookyFrank]

I'd volunteer but then my local farm is a 3 minute walk away, I wouldn't if it meant getting into a van with loads of other peeky sleep deprived looking people like it always used to in the olden-days

As I understand it temporary farm workers are often put up on site in temporary accomodation, for which they have to pay out of their crappy salaries. There's a reason migrants from poorer countries are used for this work and it's not 'work ethic' so much as the ability of employers to take the piss.

 

[lizzieloo]

I used to pick strawberries, they bussed you in at 5am from the local town

 

[Gramsci]

Its not a new problem. Been building for a couple of reasons. Brexit and the Eastern European workers finding better work nearer to home. Why come here when after Brexit you will have even less rights. My Italian friend who came to work in winter in UK has stopped coming now.

Over the years no incentive for the farming industry to automate work. When they had access to flexible labour force.
See here this article from last year:

Tonnes of crops left to rot as farms struggle to recruit EU workers

Brexit fears and fall in sterling causing pickers to stay away, says National Farmers’ Union

www.theguardian.com

The pandemic only made worse an already existing problem for farmers.

So now its going to be do your patriotic duty . your country needs you.

 

[Kaka Tim]

do its as a co-op and all the workers share in the profits and jobs a goodun.

 

[lizzieloo]

do its as a co-op and all the workers share in the profits and jobs a goodun.

Yeah but now?

Also, not gonna happen unfortunately

 

[CNT36]

Fruit picking was big round our way when I was a kid. My mates dad worked in the dole and used to hide in the fields, supposedly watching for people who signed on but more than often was so pissed he fell asleep on the job.

Bloke down the road used to work for the jobcentre. He reckons a combination of overzealous fraud investigators and the increasing difficulty off signing on and off for short term work stopped people locally doing the work. I guess lazy locals versus hard-working immigrants is an easier line to sell though.

 

[Brixton Hatter]

One of my mate's dad runs a farm in Wales, they get a small number of (mainly eastern European) workers in to help them pick the veg in the summer, it's fucking hard work and they do long days for pretty low wages. Most of them are put up in couple of caravans on site (free of charge, but I don't think that's the norm.) So you need to be fit and have to work really hard for a few months, after which you need a break so you go home with a bit of cash in your pocket (there's no time to have much of a social life.) So you can see how it might suit young people with no family, just do a summer in the UK and go home with some cash. Basically sounds pretty exploitative.

And I think the main reason it's so low paid is the supermarkets screw the farmers so hard that their margin is tiny. The supermarket-driven food system is the big issue here I reckon: farmers have to sign contracts guaranteeing to deliver X number of carrots (or whatever) on a specific date, regardless of the weather conditions or having enough workers. If the farmers can't make the order, they're cast aside and the crop is basically lost/worthless. The supermarkets have made £billions of extra in sales in recent weeks but I can't see them paying any extra to support better wages/conditions...they are fcuking ruthless...which is why they're going to struggle to get the workers needed.

 

[The39thStep]

Its not a new problem. Been building for a couple of reasons. Brexit and the Eastern European workers finding better work nearer to home. Why come here when after Brexit you will have even less rights. My Italian friend who came to work in winter in UK has stopped coming now.

Over the years no incentive for the farming industry to automate work. When they had access to flexible labour force.
See here this article from last year:

Tonnes of crops left to rot as farms struggle to recruit EU workers

Brexit fears and fall in sterling causing pickers to stay away, says National Farmers’ Union

www.theguardian.com

The pandemic only made worse an already existing problem for farmers.

So now its going to be do your patriotic duty . your country needs you.

Theres also the issue that some states that migrant workers come from have had improved economies which attract them back and gangers have also negotiated better contracts in other EU states.

 

[SpookyFrank]

And I think the main reason it's so low paid is the supermarkets screw the farmers so hard that their margin is tiny.

It is to be hoped that this is one of the issues that the current crisis will bring to wider attention.

In Greece during their economic meltdown there were farmers driving into towns and cities with a lorryload of produce and just selling it in the street. Happens in Italy too. Maybe we'll start to see more of that sort of thing here. Saw a bloke today who'd set himself up with a makeshift shack on the A6096 selling his potatoes and eggs.