FrenchieBoy
Well-Known Member
150 Rumanians have arrived in Britain for this years fruit and veg picking. This is only the tip of the iceberg as there are many thousands more needed throughout the country. There are some interesting articles available in the internet covering this topic, i.e. Part of one article reads ;
Up to 80,000 workers help farmers harvest their crops across the UK, the vast majority from Eastern Europe.
Only 10-15% of those workers are based in the UK and the rest fly in for the season.
Many farmers have tried hard over the years to recruit British workers but following a period of high employment have found it hard.
The Feed the Nation campaign is working to find farming jobs for the unemployed. So far it has had more than 33,000 applications of which 90% are British.
But it has only successfully placed 125 British people in jobs so far.
There are several things that interest me about this. For instance if so many Brits have applied (33,000 applicants of which 90% are British but it has only been able to successfully place 125 people in jobs so far) then the question that I would be interested in hearing the answer to is why only so few British applicants have been successfully placed?
Another thing that really does "concern" me is that when the fruit and veg picking season is in full swing and we have all these foriegn workers (And I know from first hand experience and agree that the vast majority of them are very hard working) how are their movements going to be controlled in order to continue to help slow the spread of CV19? I have seen it happen (And I will use Hereford as an example as I have first hand experience of fruit and veg harvesting in that area) that on most evenings after the work in the fields has finished Tescos in Hereford gets literally taken over by the immigrant fruit and veg workers getting their groceries. If that happens while we still have CV 19 lingering amongst us then will they all be made to practice "Social Distancing" (Which I believe will go on for a heck of a long time yet) or will the "employers" do something to arrange to keep the pickers within the boundaries of their property to help protect the locals from the spread of CV 19?
I don't have a problem with the immigrant "pickers" but have the government taken this into consideration?
What are your thought chaps?
Edit: While we are discussing this let's try not to be racist please.
Up to 80,000 workers help farmers harvest their crops across the UK, the vast majority from Eastern Europe.
Only 10-15% of those workers are based in the UK and the rest fly in for the season.
Many farmers have tried hard over the years to recruit British workers but following a period of high employment have found it hard.
The Feed the Nation campaign is working to find farming jobs for the unemployed. So far it has had more than 33,000 applications of which 90% are British.
But it has only successfully placed 125 British people in jobs so far.
There are several things that interest me about this. For instance if so many Brits have applied (33,000 applicants of which 90% are British but it has only been able to successfully place 125 people in jobs so far) then the question that I would be interested in hearing the answer to is why only so few British applicants have been successfully placed?
Another thing that really does "concern" me is that when the fruit and veg picking season is in full swing and we have all these foriegn workers (And I know from first hand experience and agree that the vast majority of them are very hard working) how are their movements going to be controlled in order to continue to help slow the spread of CV19? I have seen it happen (And I will use Hereford as an example as I have first hand experience of fruit and veg harvesting in that area) that on most evenings after the work in the fields has finished Tescos in Hereford gets literally taken over by the immigrant fruit and veg workers getting their groceries. If that happens while we still have CV 19 lingering amongst us then will they all be made to practice "Social Distancing" (Which I believe will go on for a heck of a long time yet) or will the "employers" do something to arrange to keep the pickers within the boundaries of their property to help protect the locals from the spread of CV 19?
I don't have a problem with the immigrant "pickers" but have the government taken this into consideration?
What are your thought chaps?
Edit: While we are discussing this let's try not to be racist please.
You say that the Brits do not want this kind of work but if that is the case (Which I do not doubt) how come so many have applied - (The Feed the Nation campaign is working to find farming jobs for the unemployed. So far it has had more than 33,000 applications of which 90% are British. But it has only successfully placed 125 British people in jobs so far) then why have so few of the Brits that applied been successfully placed? (If the article is correct)
