‘All my friends went home’: a fruit picker on life without EU workers – With fellow Europeans leaving the UK, and no British workers taking their place, Eleanor Popa’s job harvesting strawberries has gone from tough to tough and lonely. Will the farm survive another year?

10 comments

  1. Should have raised the wages th-

    >The issue is that Turner cannot recruit British workers, and EU citizens can’t get into the country. The pay is decent: Popa tells me that she earns between £2,000 and £2,500 a month, after tax, depending on how much she picks. But it’s backbreaking, exhausting work, and UK workers don’t want to do it. “It’s too hard,” says Turner. Last year, he recruited 88 British staff under the government-backed Pick for Britain campaign. “Most of them didn’t last three hours,” he says. “Imagine the paperwork, to put 88 people on the books.” Only two people stayed for more than a few days.

    Ah, nevermind then. Turns out it’s more than just that.

  5. This is what you get if most people in your country want Brexit because “the immigrants are stealing mah jobs!!!!”. Very well, now you have your jobs, but nobody who wants to do them.

  6. It always amazes me that a society can have people living on welfare and a shortage of unqualified workers at the same time… Cut the unemployment support for people who just don’t want to work!

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