The Brexit thread

[Hoonercat]

UK Govt considering a temporary visa scheme for foreign truck drivers, reportedly to be capped at 5,000.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58687026

I'm not convinced that will make much of a dent to the reported shortage of 100,000 drivers, nor that a temp scheme will be particularly attractive given that the major Euro economies are also trying to attract (and retain) foreign drivers.

[Cousin Jack]

Of course all these big logistics firms could have apprenticeship schemes and train new drivers. That would help to reduce the youth unemployment, and help those stuck in dead-end jobs that would like to retrain. They could have started these when Brexit was first decided.

[Noggin]

And maybe sort out some updated and available facilities for drivers!!

[Horse]

That would help to reduce the youth unemployment, and help those stuck in dead-end jobs that would like to retrain. They could have started these when Brexit was first decided.

Driver shortage was known about years ago, well before Brexit.

Training is one thing, but making it an attractive job is something else.

[Cousin Jack]

Driver shortage was known about years ago, well before Brexit.

Training is one thing, but making it an attractive job is something else.

All fixable, but will cost money, for better pay, better conditions and better facilities. I know several HGV drivers who like driving but hate living like tramps.

[MrLongbeard]

but making it an attractive job is something else.

Bring back brain washing for children;

[Horse]

www.ClapForTankerDrivers.com

7pm tonight

[slowsider]

[Count Steer]

Agricultural worker shortage was expected about years ago, well before Brexit.

Training is one thing, but making it an attractive job is something else.

All fixable, but will cost money, for better pay, better conditions and better facilities. I know several cabbage pickers who like cabbages but hate living like tramps.

Excellent. All those crap jobs we used to import labour for, we'll just make the jobs nice and pay more. Move the fields indoors, provide thermal underpants, apprentice schemes, pensions...

(NI are trying to avoid using cheap European labour in their meat processing plants. Poots is trying to bring in non-English speaking Filipinos. )

[Cousin Jack]

Agricultural worker shortage was expected about years ago, well before Brexit.

Training is one thing, but making it an attractive job is something else.

All fixable, but will cost money, for better pay, better conditions and better facilities. I know several cabbage pickers who like cabbages but hate living like tramps.

Excellent. All those crap jobs we used to import labour for, we'll just make the jobs nice and pay more. Move the fields indoors, provide thermal underpants, apprentice schemes, pensions...

(NI are trying to avoid using cheap European labour in their meat processing plants. Poots is trying to bring in non-English speaking Filipinos. )

Once upon a time ALL the jobs got done by Brits. Some jobs were nice, some not. The shit jobs were left for the idiots who didn't learn anything at school - a strong incentive not to play the fool too much.

Farms were small, and farm labourers often worked part time for several farms to make up a full time job. It always was hard work (in my youth I have spent several freezing wet January days cutting broccoli so I know), but they were a part of the family. Then along came big agribusiness and big supermarkets, small farms got squeezed out, and big farms want to employ teams of very cheap labour with conditions that old-style farmers would not have imposed on a dog. They aren't interested in training, they do like immigrants because they or their mates can flog sub-standard accommodation to them to claw back a slice of the wages. And they will put up with a great deal of hardship to feed a family back home.

Meat process is another industry I do have just a small knowledge of. Working conditions are not nice, HR practices are dire. Again an industry that exploits immigrants who have zero knowledge of UK labour law, and have mates who rent overcrowded caravans.

All foreseeable as part of the price of cheap food. And entirely fixable, most of the UK population is overweight anyway, so a diet would do them good. Decent wages, fair conditions, and welfare benefits time limited. Get the job you want in 12 months, or do the job that is available

As for Poots, he is an Ulster Unionist. Enough said. I cannot be responsible for idiots or Irishmen.

[Horse]

The shit jobs were left for the idiots who didn't learn anything at school -

I have spent several freezing wet January days cutting broccoli

H, who worked in a motorway services for a while

[Mr. Dazzle]

I went to Uni with a guy from Hawaii who used to pick pineapples as a summer job. Bent double in 40° sunshine picking spikey fruit.

Not sure if that's better or worse than Broccoli in a freezing January.

[Cousin Jack]

I went to Uni with a guy from Hawaii who used to pick pineapples as a summer job. Bent double in 40° sunshine picking spikey fruit.

Not sure if that's better or worse than Broccoli in a freezing January.

Probably safer. Chopping broccoli stems with a very big sharp knife when you can't feel your fingers..........
I've done the hot bit too, stacking bales in the baking sun, although it wasn't 40.

[Potter]

All foreseeable as part of the price of cheap food. And entirely fixable, most of the UK population is overweight anyway, so a diet would do them good. Decent wages, fair conditions, and welfare benefits time limited. Get the job you want in 12 months, or do the job that is available

From another thread.

I also have an issue with consumers that just don't give a shit, they want cheap and they don't care how they get it or who suffers.
Consumers can make responsible choices about what they buy, but very few of us do, most just buy at the best price they can and don't care how those cuts were made. E.g. I guarantee that you own shoes made in a shithole by poorly paid staff, but few of you will spend the money to ensure that they were made in the UK by properly paid craftsmen.

[wheelnut]

We don’t need European workers
We don’t need European workers
We don’t need European workers
We don’t need European workers


Can we have some European workers please.



Hauliers and poultry workers to get temporary visas
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58694004

[DefTrap]

I quite liked working in the fields in the sunshine.
If it starts to pay well I'll go back to doing that in the summer and then drive my luxury truck around a few hours in the winter when I'm bored.

[demographic]

Once upon a time ALL the jobs got done by Brits.

IIRC a large upsurge in the use of itinerant farm workers was around the 14th century when crop rotation became more widespread. Seems Mrs Stewart did actually teach me something about history after all.
Think they were mostly Irish workers but not only them.
Gypsys played a large part and crops like Hops for beer have historically been picked by migrant/itinerant workers.
Oh and as a side note, they recently discovered (by examining the isotope makup in their tooth enamel) that some of the English archers on the Mary rose were more likely to have been Moors from North Africa and the Mediterranean.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/22 ... th-africa/

[Potter]

I quite liked working in the fields in the sunshine.
If it starts to pay well I'll go back to doing that in the summer and then drive my luxury truck around a few hours in the winter when I'm bored.

Me too, we used to get paid a fiver each to chop a massive pile of beets for the feed.

But these days it's a single bloke in a tractor that does all the work, you can run a sprawling farm with less than half a dozen people, although lorry driving is set to become lucrative so you might be onto a winner there - you'll be able to deliver cheap Chinese goods for twenty times an hour what the bloke that made them was paid all day - they'll be expensive for the consumer, but that's progress.

[DefTrap]

they'll be expensive for the consumer, but that's brexit.

Ftfy

Project Fear I think it was called. Bloody obvious.
But if we're all fine with that, then fine.

I'm minted natch' I couldn't give a fig about prices.

[Potter]

Paying UK lorry drivers more = prices go up.

I think that outcome would happen regardless of Brexit, unless you mean stay in the EU and pay lorry drivers a pittance and keep using forrin ones, then yes, it's Brexit's fault.