Why Are The Lazy English Not Picking Our Fruits And Vegetables?

pogofish

stator wrote: »

Nope.
I've never seen an advert for harvest labour in the UK.

IME it was exceptional to see picking work advertised.

What used to happen was that you turned-up at a truly ungodly hour at one or other of a number of informal pick-up points around the city where the vans arrived and gangs were hastily put together - you were paid by the day, cash in-hand. Needless to say, all sorts of frauds abounded.

If you looked up to the work, it would be usually pretty easy to get into a van and be driven-off to work a day on some farm, where you were usually considered worse than the smelly stuff they spread on the fields. Sometimes you would be back the next day but often it would be somewhere else.

If you were a good worker, your face soon got known and you might be invited to join a more formal/regular gang or asked to bring your friends along if they worked like you and as a reward, you got a little more money and more stable work but it was still how you did on the day that mattered and you would get money docked if you breached one of the farmer/ganger's myriad of usually extremely petty rules/conditions. I understand this aspect is still common with the overseas workers, esp if they are in farm/ganger-provided accommodation.

pogofish

Herzlos wrote: »

It should be an ideal job for uni students - there's a (deliberate) overlap between school/uni holidays and when farm labour is required.

It was indeed - Picking and grouse-beating were common jobs for students on Uni vacation in my part of the world - Grouse beating was probably more sought after as the work was slightly less back-breaking, the estates usually fed you and if one of the "guests" accidentally blasted you with their shotgun, you could expect a pretty healthy bung to keep your mouth shut.

kerri_gt

Mojisola wrote: »

It's the other way round - farmers started advertising in Europe because they couldn't get enough workers from the home population.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Maybe it's that they could get European ones more easily as the gangmasters offered labour without any hassles.... they turn up, pick, leave... the gangmaster probably has a client list up to 20-30 miles radius and goes farm to farm to farm, with a minibus to transport them all and caravans for them to sleep in.

The gangmasters offered an easier solution ... so they could profit themselves on the backs of the workers.

British workers would have to think about transport. How do you get from your little flat to a field 4 miles away for 3 days, followed by a field 8 miles away for the following 4 days? And how do you even find these two jobs back-to-back when you're already busy in a field 10 miles in the other direction.

Before, people came from the "local area", so 1-2 miles - and all the farmers and people lived locally and knew the farms - and all their friends/family did it every year since 1750 .... and so it was easy to know the "rounds" and it was all just organised/sorted locally, by locals, who did the work. People knew all their neighbours and walked about the area locally - passing in the street "You coming to pick at George's on Thursday?" "Yeah, I'll be there" and just turn up....

The way people live/work/travel these days doesn't make it so easy. Neither do benefits/hours/rules/limits/caps etc ... on top of finding out who has picking work available as everybody's "a stranger round these parts" these days.

I recall watching a programme some years ago about people on JSA who said 'I'd take any job'. They were then offered jobs picking fruit / veg, with transport to get there ... and turned their noses up saying 'I'm not doing that'. The farmers were also interviewed asking why they employed foreign labour and the said that Brits wouldn't do the jobs so they had no choice.

Obviously the programme was cut for impact but there's also the saying 'no smoke without fire'

triathlon

PasturesNew wrote: »

They'll have to change, or explain, benefits rules to get Brits to do it.

The work is not guaranteed - and it's short-lived. That gives Brits problems with benefits and signing back on again ...

Furreners are mostly bussed from farm to farm and given caravans to live in for the summer season ... so it's "easier" for them as they don't start from a point of having an AST and rent to pay and commitments to meet.

Workers used to come from the local population - students, school kids and housewives... they'll have to do it in the future.

For many, they don't get the work as the work is controlled by gang masters, who bring their teams in. Farmers don't want to spend time interviewing/selecting/managing people when they can just phone up a gang master and say "send me 8 on Monday, 16 on Tuesday and on Wednesday I'll let you know".

That's why I am glad Brexit is getting watered down. We need good solid EU workers and lazy British who stay on welfare who get their rent paid through HB, as long as house prices remain high and rental demand is good I am happy :T

PokerPlayer111

triathlon wrote: »

That's why I am glad Brexit is getting watered down. We need good solid EU workers and lazy British who stay on welfare who get their rent paid through HB, as long as house prices remain high and rental demand is good I am happy :T

The brexit stuff so far has made UK housing cheaper to the rest of the world due to weaker pound so you could also even be happy from that perspective because if outsiders can find a way to invest in UK property its cheaper for them.

Tammykitty

Between 10 and 15 years ago, I went to Denmark and went strawberry picking during the summer when I was at Uni - and there was a number of UK people there - and I am sure this still happens!


So its not all a one way street

Sapphire

kabayiri wrote: »

Basic food is actually very cheap.

It's cleaned/processed food which pushes up the shopping bill.

Despite this, we in the UK spend vast amounts on ready meals and pre-prepared food.

I'm now buying vegetables and fruits from a market (paying cash), unpackaged except for those lovely brown paper bags. I have to say that I do notice a difference in the taste. Supermarket carrots in particular are horrible, but the English-grown ones (they are small, with green tops), have a lovely taste. I'd forgotten that carrots can actually taste nice until I started buying the ones from the market.

Nasqueron

I'm not in any way in favour of a hard Brexit but I should point out that in Australia and New Zealand (both of which I have visited and travelled in and worked in the former) they offer working holiday visas where people can come from places like the UK and do 3 month stints at places over the course of a year. Now not to say Aussie students would want to come here and pick fruit vs Brits going to sunny Australia but it might be possible if you do these visas for enough countries. The problem as ever is the hardcore racist element of Leave (post vote survey from Lord Ashcroft showed around 1/3 of leave voters did so primarily for immigration reason) that doesn't want foreigners (particularly non-white ones) in the UK full stop who don't understand the impact of stopping immigration.

silverwhistle

Enterprise_1701C wrote: »

It would make a good break for anyone on a gap year, they could travel around the UK picking fruit on various farms and actually learn English, which is more than a lot of the eu citizens seem to these days.

I thought most of your post was prejudiced rubbish, to be honest, but I thought I'd pick up on this point.


When is a field worker going to be able to learn English at the height of the harvest, particularly when they're doing overtime? The government has cut back on the provision of ESOL, and if you are in a single language grouping out in the fields and glasshouses what exactly will be the mechanism whereby you learn?


I teach/taught English as a foreign/other language and I failed to get a job where the local growers wanted English courses for their workers, with the classes actually on site because of the practical difficulties. I've taught in FE colleges with a range of students and they were never lacking in motivation; just time and money.



So your "seem" is more a reflection on you than it is the workers.


Many years ago I picked tobacco in Ontario, Canada and the same phenomenon of foreign workers was visible then. The farmers preferred us foreign students as we were a long way from home and more reliable as a result. If they p*ssed the Quebecois gangs off they'd just jump in their cars and drive off home, leaving the farmer in a bind.

HPC_Ghuol_Hunter

Still not many answers as to why the lazy Brits are not picking up the slack, and why fruit and vegetables are being left to rot in UK fields.