Reply to: Fruit Pickers

[ladymuck]

oh yes combine this with not going mechanised and its pretty much the industries fault.

That's not what I said. Well done for coming to your very own, special conclusion.

[vetran]

I wonder if the low wages are also partly due to supermarkets driving down the price of produce and people being so used to cheap food that they won't actually pay the true cost of its production. Similar happens in the dairy industry.

oh yes combine this with not going mechanised and its pretty much the industries fault.

[ladymuck]

it is of course a global problem few farmers are willing to pay enough, the answer of course is to mechanise:

The strawberry-picking robots doing a job humans won't - BBC News



Don't know about you, I would prefer to pick strawberries in California sunshine for £40 an hour than £9 in rainy Norfolk.

I wonder if the low wages are also partly due to supermarkets driving down the price of produce and people being so used to cheap food that they won't actually pay the true cost of its production. Similar happens in the dairy industry.

[NotAllThere]

Erm, students are not a race.

no but "Brits too lazy to fruit pick" are

Erm "Brits too lazy to fruit pick" isn't a race either.

In the late 80's students used to pick fruit. I remember avoiding it by getting a summer job programming.

Its a continuous slur from the left who say we have to import Eastern Europeans to do the job Brits wont do.

Well that's not true. It's a slur from the right and the liberals as well. You're just leftist.

[vetran]

it is of course a global problem few farmers are willing to pay enough, the answer of course is to mechanise:

The strawberry-picking robots doing a job humans won't - BBC News

Mr Pitzer says two thirds of the country's strawberry production is backing the move to mechanisation."Growers advertise and pay a lot of money - a good picker can make $30 (£22) an hour [in Florida]; in California it's $50 an hour," he says.
But they still can't recruit enough workers.
"People like to say if you paid them more they'd do the job, but it's just not true. We know in future that labour won't be available."

Don't know about you, I would prefer to pick strawberries in California sunshine for £40 an hour than £9 in rainy Norfolk.

[vetran]

No, I implied UK students were too lazy to pick fruit.

Please learn to read/comprehend. Not all students in the UK are British. Stop with the casual racism please.

Its a continuous slur from the left who say we have to import Eastern Europeans to do the job Brits wont do.

I'm just trying to explain its a financial decision people don't want the jobs because they are seasonal and relatively poorly paid for the effort involved.

I tried to add students so you understood even motivated people didn't want to fruit pick.

Odd students tend to work quite hard at menial jobs in my experience. I for one cleaned toilets and worked in restaurants to pay for college. My Daughters work in a chip shop while at UNI. Maybe you don't know any hard working students? I do notice many of the jobs that used to be taken by students are now done by Eastern Europeans. I wonder why?

[northernladyuk]

Dunno. Does he know what a fruit looks like?

The old man is happy with minimum wage to get down on his hands and knees for some fruit approaching its use by date.

[vetran]

You clean toilets and drive Ubers in cities and towns. If you pick fruit or veg you end up stuck in a rural location with no public transport.

yes but you can't Drive Ubers and all the hospitality areas are closed so both professions are without work.

[SueEllen]

Well its obviously not enough because all of the poorly paid Brits haven't chosen to do it instead of cleaning toilets or driving Ubers.

Whenever you find a shortage of low skilled workers there is normally a reason and its rarely laziness. Whilst many eastern europeans are hard workers so are Ugandans, Nigerians and Indians and there are plenty of thos eat the bottom end of the pay scales as they don't have UK qualifications but their kids will be Doctors & Lawyes.

You clean toilets and drive Ubers in cities and towns. If you pick fruit or veg you end up stuck in a rural location with no public transport.

[Paralytic]

no but "Brits too lazy to fruit pick" are

No, I implied UK students were too lazy to pick fruit.

Please learn to read/comprehend. Not all students in the UK are British. Stop with the casual racism please.

[ladymuck]

Could PC do it? From a skills rather than a hard work perspective, naturally.

Dunno. Does he know what a fruit looks like?

[Old Greg]

Is fruit picking low skilled? Knowing exactly which are ready to pick and which to leave a few more days, how to pick without damaging the fruit, etc?

Hard work doesn't mean low skilled.

Could PC do it? From a skills rather than a hard work perspective, naturally.

[ladymuck]

Well its obviously not enough because all of the poorly paid Brits haven't chosen to do it instead of cleaning toilets or driving Ubers.

Whenever you find a shortage of low skilled workers there is normally a reason and its rarely laziness. Whilst many eastern europeans are hard workers so are Ugandans, Nigerians and Indians and there are plenty of thos eat the bottom end of the pay scales as they don't have UK qualifications but their kids will be Doctors & Lawyes.

Is fruit picking low skilled? Knowing exactly which are ready to pick and which to leave a few more days, how to pick without damaging the fruit, etc?

Hard work doesn't mean low skilled.

[Old Greg]

Lord Rose wants students to become seasonal fruit pickers | This is Money

[Old Greg]

Lord Rose wants students to become seasonal fruit pickers | This is Money