Diary (25th July 2024)
Quotes from much earlier research because I am tired:
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While researching flower bulbs, I became interested in the situation of migrant workers from Central and Eastern Europe in the Netherlands and spoke to a specialist, Karin. She works as an associate professor in labour and gender economics at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Hague, the Netherlands.
Her report “Migrant Labour in Dutch Agriculture: Regulated Precarity” describes the current context in which migrant workers are forced to work long hours for less than minimum wage, and what improvements can be sought. Current employment problems include ‘zero-hour employment contracts’, which stipulate payment only for hours worked and allow workers to be dismissed if there is no work or if they are sick, and ‘package deals’, where labour brokers also provide housing for migrant workers and deduct a disproportionate amount of rent and food costs from the workers’ wages. And this employment problem is structurally supported by consumers who demand cheap goods, and by giant retail chains who are willing to buy produce as cheaply as possible in order to sell their products to these consumers. It concludes that strengthening the union power of migrant workers through awareness-raising and organising is a stepping stone to improving this situation, but it is difficult to challenge the structure behind it, which is to maximise company profits and reduce labour costs. These labour issues are not yet visible from the good employers (farmers) I visit, so this kind of research is very informative and I would like to know more about the current situation.
