Ben Wray edits Source, which is the daily newsletter from the Commonweal think tank in Scotland. It does not matter, I suggest, whether you are much interested in Scottish affairs or not when considering subscribing to this free newsletter. I would suggest Ben's commentary from a left of centre perspective makes it a daily worthwhile read for his comments alone. This is from today's newsletter:
UK growers are utterly reliant on low-paid, seasonal foreign labour, mainly Eastern European, to pick the fruit and vegetables that is then delivered to market. Suddenly there is talk of special chartered flight for the fruit-pickers, the same low-cost immigrant labour that the right-wing press has derided for years. James Porter, a farmer in Angus, has told the BBC he needs to find hundreds of strawberry pickers within weeks or else his fruit will rot. He said normally 200 workers would travel from Eastern Europe, and it's interesting that he showers them with praise: his "top pickers" are "very skilful", productivity levels which will be next to impossible to find elsewhere. The National Farmers Union are appealing for students and the unemployed to head out to farms and pick, or else they "face ruin".
I am sure if a decent wage is paid for this skilled work then they will find the labour force. Food is just another case of our globalisation model not valuing its workers and not valuing resilience, and those chickens are now coming home to roost. Just one month ago today, a top advisor to the Treasury, Dr Tim Leunig, is reported to have said in high-level meetings that the UK's food sector was "not critically important", and agriculture and fisheries "certainly isn't". The UK could instead follow the Singapore model, of being "rich without having its own agriculture sector". Those comments - made in the context of post-Brexit trade deals - now look foolish to the point of madness. The world of pointing to a sector's share of national GDP to decipher how "important" it is must surely be over.
The dogmas of the neoliberal age are now extremely dangerous, to the point that Britain could quickly become a land of food waste and food shortages, all at the same time.
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I’m aware of the Commonweal but wasn’t aware of Source. Thanks for the link to that Richard and for your outstanding posts.
Thanks
I’ve seen similar reports from other sources over the past week, Richard. But it seems to me that as with the comment about special charter flights for fruit pickers this completely ignores the serious constraints in the movement of people forced on us by the coronavirus pandemic.
Furthermore, I agree with your comment about paying a decent wage and this perhaps attracting students and the unemployed from across the UK. But again, coronavirus strictures still apply, so that it might be the case that this type of movement of labour simply moves infections from one place to another, where in the case of rural areas medical facilities are few and far between.
Finally, I note reports this morning that cases in China are once more on the increase after five days of no new cases and the Chinese are saying this is mainly due to transmission by asymptomatic carriers. The significance of this point was backed up yesterday by the head of the US CDC who states that their research shows that as many as 1 in 4 infected people show no symptoms but are nevertheless transmitting the virus wherever they go. Add into that mix the situation we have in the UK (and the US) where testing has been (and largely remains) at an appallingly low level, such that we actually have no real idea of how many people have been infected, when and where they are and the danger of allowing potentially large numbers of people to move from one part of the country to another to undertake any form of work are multiplied tenfold.
So, as far as I can see this leaves us in a very difficult situation with some extremely tough choices to be made, and very quickly. Unfortunately, based on th evidence so far, I’m not confident that Johnson and co are up to that challenge. And as will become more and more apparent over the coming months, the governments unwillingness or inability to follow WHO advice and ‘test. test, test’ will prove very, very costly in terms of lives lost, efforts to lift the lockdown, and other post-peak infection policy choices.
Given the govt’s refusal to properly implement testing, one has to wonder if a very solid lockdown isn’t their actual aim here. Under that cover, what could they do? Bring forward Brexit, perhaps, an extremely hard one? I’m wondering if this is where we’re going. There has to be a reason for not testing.
Oh yes, those fruit-pickers… next-to-impossible, I’d think, to employ them for the same outlay given the necessity for observing social distancing. Implementing that would drive costs so high, possibly, the end product would be so expensive it wouldn’t sell. We’ll be doing without for the immediate future, I think.
Price controls and rationing
Small prices to pay for keeping people fed and maintaining social order
There seems to a very good reason for half hearted testing and acquisition of ventilators. They expose the government’s failures (they can get away with in more normal times), not least lack of preparedness, lack of respect for “low skilled” workers who are the backbone of the UK, and a general lack of interest in a well functioning infrastructure:
-Exercise Cygnus ignored
-43,000 nurse 10,000 doctor vacancies – who will man field hospitals and operate ventilators?
-Brexit and Windrush xenophobia driving away essential workers
Just the most obvious of a long list ..
So.. Damage limitation? Now the ‘working classes’ who turned blue (in the election, now potentially literally) – the realities of voting in a government that doesn’t have voters interests at heart, and if as suspected things significantly worsen (btw lockdown with mobilised army can serve a second purpose beyond infection; controlling riots), just how are the Tories going to poll.
In terms of preparedness, the Tory manifesto pledge to abolish the Fixed Term Act should be acted on ASAP.
I don’t suppose that can will get kicked down the road…
Mr Horrocks,
An invaluable comment if I may say so; as the PRC is some way ahead of everyone on the COVID-19 timeline; and appear more rigorous in applying almost every policy decision, than the UK (and have either planned better, or can move with more agility). It is often said that this is because China is a more authoritarian country, and it is easier to do there. That may be so, but I also feel that the British people were ahead of the Government here, from the very beginning of the outbreak; and the Government has not ever quite caught up. It is still living in a Brexit-induced, euphoric political haze of hubris, and has all the wrong people in charge for a crisis, with all the wrong political instincts; for an age now instantly extinct.
There is a simple comparison to be made, that reflects on fundamental policy attitudes to planning, to understanding the need for building in redundancy for the unexpected, and to reflect coolly and objectively on the effects on Britain of ten years of Austerity; the loss, the sheer waste of so much, which must surely make people now begin to ask – for whom or for what, precisely was that grinding ten years of austerity applied to the NHS, and to so much else with such relentless determination? In the current Pandemic, Germany planned for and already possesses 25,000 ventilators (almost 5 times the number possessed by the UK), and is currently providing 500,000 COVID-19 tests a week. Britain is struggling to do even 10,000 tests per day (70,000 per week). Britain is now having great difficulty acquiring sufficient testing kits and ventilators, because – I submit – planning, and its real implications is ideologically so foreign to neo-liberal dogma.
Richard with reference to the skill and productivity of East European workers; I remember a local market gardener making the same point a few years ago. What is often lost in the debate and media attacks on foreign pickers is that their real wages are much higher than the equivalent earned by UK labour.
Although the ratios may have moved during the 10 years since. The workers were paid piece rates. Because they were provided with accommodation on site their living costs were kept to a minimum. They lived well. He was a good employer.They saved most of their earnings. Their goal was to accumulate £5,000 over two or so seasons. That was enough for them to have a house built and fully paid for in their own country. So the economics is overwhelmingly in favour of the foreign worker. No UK agricultural worker can earn enough in two or so years to buy a house. Is it any wonder that the UK is able to attract a highly motivated overseas workforce? A workforce motivated to acquire the necessary skills and work ethic. Work all hours in all weathers. Reversing the real wage ratio would also reverse the work ethic ranking of the two labour forces. No longer would UK workers be accused of being to lazy to get out of bed. Unfortunately, under Capitalism no such increase in real wages is likely to occur.
John.
I agree with your assessment. It’s an often spouted criticism, that UK workers are lazy and won’t take the work. But if the wages can’t pay a mortgage…….
I did a season fruit picking in NZ whilst “travelling” (many moons ago). The wages were pants, but I got my accomodation included and I was 20. I could save up most of what I earnt. There were lots of other nationalities doing the same and it was a great laugh. The only Kiwis working on the farm were on the lower rungs of society and mainly lived in trailer parks. There is no way that anyone with lots of financial commitments (mortgages, kids etc) could have lived off those wages.
But we all like to buy cheap food.
It is at the heart of the whole question of globalization.
As consumers, we are better off if the manufacturing of goods is outsourced to China.
But as an ex-employees of a company that has relocated production to China, maybe it’s not so good. Especially, if the only jobs going (to replace the factory jobs) are lower paid.
However, if you are in a sector that is not effected by by relocation to China, it’s a win win. You have wage stability and cheaper “stuff”
The most obvious problem with the idea of students and the unemployed is location and accommodation.
In short if they don’t live near the rural areas affected what then.
I’ve been into a good number of super markets over the last week or so. A feature of my job as a volunteer to get food to the elderly. The vast majority of people are queuing happily outside and observing fairly good social distancing once inside. Over the last few days especially the shelves have been re-stocked of most things, with a bit of pasta, soup, rice being low or out of stock. Fresh meat and veg is fine. There is no problem keeping people fed, at the moment anyway.
There is a massive problem….people are running out of moeny
Absolutely. Half a million people signed up to Universal Credit in a mere nine days up to 25th March alone. There’s a full month before any payments will be made and apparently up to another week for “..the payment to reach your bank”…. Then in the present climate of course there’s organising interviews for all those folk…how’s that going to ever happen?
-We are going to have hundreds of thousands of people who have no money even for food within weeks.
One (at least) Italian commune is doing its own thing to resolve the lack of money:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/coronavirus-local-currency-santa-marina-italy-giovanni-fortunato-a9441896.html or
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2796376827110289&set=a.426110327470296&type=3&theater
The pandemic has brought labour issues in the sector into better focus. Now those working in the food supply chain find themselves in the key worker category, it seems important duty of care towards them be thought of as a food security issue also.
Recent recruitment in the sector will help keep things going (once more people fall ill & have to self isolate). But it’s about a lot more than numbers. Many roles require people trained and able to use IT systems (eg. coordination of delivery operations or even picking) while other roles require people able to operate machinery (forklifts, loading bays etc). A shortage of people in any specific role at a point in time could quickly impact upon efficiency and the ability of the sector to ensure supply continuity in the months ahead.
Improving health and safety, thus reducing scope for that to happen is now absolutely critical. With hindsight the panic buying situation would have been best addressed much earlier with across the board item limits. The scenario described above may already be on the horizon, but it can still be averted if a suitable approach is found quickly.