Migrant farm workers

Yes for minimum wage. And it was the employer who paid. About 8 coaches used

 

Once again we're back to a discussion about the VALUE of doing a job vs. the SKILL required to do it. You can have a low skilled job that's highly valuable. Weirdly we seem to be obsessed with the actual skill of doing someting being high, before you get paid well.

See Amazon pickers, delivery driver etc. hell, being a nurse is highly skilled yet their pay starts at £24k.

Edit: I'd call these jobs work with 'hidden value'.

 

It is an eye opener this covoid situation . This army of middle / top managers who have been paid better than everyone else are suddenly not needed .

 

Some interesting opinions. I was thinking along the lines of some sort of National Service thing, after all there are millions of perfectly healthy capable people sitting on their backsides on furlough, many of whom would be happy to help with fruit picking in the same way that many have volunteered to help the NHS. Obviously if you live in the centre of Sheffield there would be a logistical problem of getting you to the farms without having to sit on crowded buses etc.

 

Gypsies arguing with the farmer when he discovered that they were putting bricks in their Pea sacks
was always very entertaining. They knew every trick in the book them lads. Putting cement inside
lead pipe and then hammering the ends down etc. etc.

 

Where?
Do you think that hospital was built by a bunch of soldiers getting together and deciding they fancied helping? They rung round some sparkles and plumbers to help? Then they put a shout out on Facebook for doctors and nurses?

my guess is a load of heads of department from across government came up with a plan that their staff could implement supported by some private sector partners. But y’know you’re probably right

 

If they paid the farm workers £15 an hour instead of £8.72 they'd have no shortage of staff. They'd also save on transporting workers in and accommodation etc.

 

Erm yes , historically speaking anyway . I'm sure if you was a nurse or medical practitioner during the Crimean war ( recognized as the birthplace of mass medical intervention) you weren't doing it for the money .

 

A lot of immigrants went home at the start of this leaving a massive hole in a lot of jobs

 

In the 90’s the Farmers in South Lincolnshire got rid of all the local workers and replaced them with people from Birmingham for the Brussel Sprout season. The Farmers paid them half the amount and then put portacabins at side of the fields and charged them to stay in there.
It was done purely to increase profits.

 

A Tory wet dream, brilliant.

 

I didn't say that I thought it was a good thing by the way

 

The question was quite specific to the Nightingale hospital.

But since you brought it up, what revolutionised hospital treatment (thanks to Florence Nightingale) was the use of statistics to track infection. She didn’t just guess how to improve hospitals, she produced some beautiful hand drawn graphs to illustrate the situation.

 

Sure , there's been some very clever individuals over the years who we have a lot to be thankful of and I'm going to guess the nightingale hospital has been put together by some of the smartest minds in the UK . I'm more refering to the more deadbeat middle managers who have been cut cut cut and instigated this " just in time " management strategy which has exacerbated the current situation . As I said in my first post , there not needed any more .

 

This Govt surely has to let market forces prevail................. if this means a lack of produce is picked then prices will rise and/or cause shortages/panic buying

One solution would be to increase wages of the pickers - businesses don't like doing that - but the right wing will let the 'market' decide

Personally I can't see many folk wanting this kind of hard, short term work for little reward - one possibility is short term work visas for this work - which won't go down too well with some

One thing for sure is that on top of this Covid 19 stuff times will be interesting but I'd be anticipating empty shelves again

 

I know, I know.

 

In my own defence I've said this for years, but I generally get ignored

Here's an article from over a decade ago.

 

I remember getting picked up at the crack of dawn by a tractor and trailer during the school holidays and going potato picking in Goldthorpe. My fingers are only just thawing.

I also spent a summer between college years dehydrating Peas and Beans at Bachelors in Sheffield. The things I saw.

 

We used to go every Feb to Cornwall for Daffodil picking for 2 weeks near St David’s Mount.
Brilliant times and used to earn some serious coin as well.

 

Don't think he thought you did tbf.