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gloswhite wrote:I like the Poles. They helped us out during the war, and as you say, they are good workers. Its a shame that a lot of our own workers had to take a dive in wages when the market was flooded with all the cheaper, but still skilled, workers.
No offence, Glos, but that is a myth.
And it's that myth which helps to perpetuate the lie that your average British worker is poorer now because he's competing with some Polish bloke.
I used to work for a company in Manchester who have a large factory which makes washing up liquid, bleach and fabric conditioner.
They employ about 300 people in their Filling Hall across four shifts.
The nature of seasonal demand dictates that they employ a percentage of that number on agency contracts, so that they can flex up and down as appropriate.
The going rate for the job (when I was there) was about seven quid an hour.
They have a retained agency on site who source and provide said labour.
And they struggle to employ local (English) people because quite a lot of the residents of Langley Estate in Middleton won't get out of bed for seven quid an hour, let alone work on a production line, filling bottles of bleach.
So how do they fill the labour gap?
By bringing Eastern Europeans in, that's how.
And the decent ones are offered permanent contracts after 12 weeks.
So over the last ten years or so, the factory dynamic has shifted a bit to the point where about 50% of the full time, permanent staff are Eastern Europeans.
And this myth keeps getting perpetuated locally that McBrides only employ Poles and you can't get on if you're English and that's racist, blah, blah, etc....
When the truth of the matter actually is that McBride's would love a factory full of English people because it would make keeping the place running over Christmas far easier because 50% of the workforce wouldn't be buggering off back to Gdansk for the holidays.
And the Poles haven't driven the wages down, they're just more willing to accept the going rate for the job, whereas Daz from Midd would rather stay in bed and get his weed money off the government once a fortnight.
And having been self-employed for the last 12 years or so, I've seen this in literally dozens of factories up and down the country.
I've said it before, if they all upped sticks and went home tomorrow, half our factories would shut almost over night and the other half would have to start putting their prices up to offset the increase in wages that they'd have to offer Daz and his mates to get them off benefits.
And that ain't sustainable.
Bit it would be a direct consequence of abandoning the free movement of Europe wide labour which so many Leavers see as a good thing.
