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Tannin 
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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| Post subject: Whinge, whinge, whinge: fruit growers at work |  |
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Fruit growers are whinging like a rusty gate about not getting enough pickers. They claim that they will have to leave fruit to rot this year, and all because they can't access the usual number of ultra-low-paid workers they get from overseas.
They can't understand why city people aren't queuing up to earn "good money" picking fruit.
OK, let's work an example. You are an unemployed 25-year-old living in Sydney. You are offered a job picking apples at the going rate, which is $40 a bin. A bin holds roughly 1000 apples. YOU are not a skilled, professional fruit picker but you are fit and keen. You can probably pick three bins a day, maybe four if you are super-fit and work like blazes.
That's $120 a day, maybe $160 tops. Before tax. Before accommodation. No sick pay. No holidays. The accommodation is usually awful, and not cheap. AND you still have to pay your Sydney rent on top of it. AND that rate is what you get from a farmer direct: most fruit picking jobs go via dodgy labour-hire shell companies that cream off most of it and pay even less.
A pitiful $40 to pick 1000 apples. And these scumbags have got the hide to whinge because no-one wants to work for them.
They can stick it.
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Dark Beanie 
Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Location: A galaxy far, far away.
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I did tomato picking as a school holiday job.
Was hard work but one of the few ways to earn money when I was a teenager.
Younger brother picked pears and apricots.
Picking is hard yakka and even if good money was offered many unemployed locals don't it as they get money on benefits.
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If you are foolish enough to be contented, don't show it, but just grumble with the rest. - Jerome K Jerome |
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Pi
Joined: 13 Feb 2006
Location: SA
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yeah..... and there is no way hipster vegetarians in Brunswick should have to pay more for their fruit much less go and pick it.
Imagine their outrage on twitter against those evil hick farmers on phones made by near slave labor in factories operated with no environmental regulations.
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Pi = Infinite = Collingwood = Always
Floreat Pica |
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Pies4shaw 
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
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| Post subject: Re: Whinge, whinge, whinge: fruit growers at work | |
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| Tannin wrote: | Fruit growers are whinging like a rusty gate about not getting enough pickers. They claim that they will have to leave fruit to rot this year, and all because they can't access the usual number of ultra-low-paid workers they get from overseas.
They can't understand why city people aren't queuing up to earn "good money" picking fruit.
OK, let's work an example. You are an unemployed 25-year-old living in Sydney. You are offered a job picking apples at the going rate, which is $40 a bin. A bin holds roughly 1000 apples. YOU are not a skilled, professional fruit picker but you are fit and keen. You can probably pick three bins a day, maybe four if you are super-fit and work like blazes.
That's $120 a day, maybe $160 tops. Before tax. Before accommodation. No sick pay. No holidays. The accommodation is usually awful, and not cheap. AND you still have to pay your Sydney rent on top of it. AND that rate is what you get from a farmer direct: most fruit picking jobs go via dodgy labour-hire shell companies that cream off most of it and pay even less.
A pitiful $40 to pick 1000 apples. And these scumbags have got the hide to whinge because no-one wants to work for them.
They can stick it. |
Can those figures be right, Tannin? What if they have to drive their Countach along a dirt road to get to the fruit-picking? That money wouldn’t even pay for the vehicle wash. |
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watt price tully 
Joined: 15 May 2007
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| Pi wrote: | yeah..... and there is no way hipster vegetarians in Brunswick should have to pay more for their fruit much less go and pick it.
Imagine their outrage on twitter against those evil hick farmers on phones made by near slave labor in factories operated with no environmental regulations. |
Tell me more about “Whataboutism”
Look over there 👉
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“I even went as far as becoming a Southern Baptist until I realised they didn’t keep ‘em under long enough” Kinky Friedman |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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| Pi wrote: | yeah..... and there is no way hipster vegetarians in Brunswick should have to pay more for their fruit much less go and pick it.
Imagine their outrage on twitter against those evil hick farmers on phones made by near slave labor in factories operated with no environmental regulations. |
And your point is .....
_________________
�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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watt price tully
Joined: 15 May 2007
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| Dark Beanie wrote: | I did tomato picking as a school holiday job.
Was hard work but one of the few ways to earn money when I was a teenager.
Younger brother picked pears and apricots.
Picking is hard yakka and even if good money was offered many unemployed locals don't it as they get money on benefits. |
I worked in banana fields in upper northern Galilee in Israel on a kibbutz for nearly a year. That was hard yakka as was picking apples. The hardest was planting cucumbers in the Golan Heights and planting capsicum near the Dead Sea. Friggin hot hard work.
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“I even went as far as becoming a Southern Baptist until I realised they didn’t keep ‘em under long enough” Kinky Friedman |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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| watt price tully wrote: | | Tell me more about “Whataboutism” |
Possibly - who knows with such a meaningless, emotive post - his complaint is that it would put the price of fruit up. What a clueless crock that is. You could double the wages of apple pickers - yes, give them a 100% pay increase - and the price of an apple would go up by less than 5c.
Fruit picking would still be a pretty ordinary way to make a living if you doubled the wages (remember, pickers have much higher costs than storemen or bank tellers, and work longer hours) but it would be tenable. Not a great job, but better than nothing.
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�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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I did grapes up Mildura way. Hot, dirty, poorly paid. And there are worse things to pick than grapes.
_________________
�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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Pi
Joined: 13 Feb 2006
Location: SA
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| Tannin wrote: | | Pi wrote: | yeah..... and there is no way hipster vegetarians in Brunswick should have to pay more for their fruit much less go and pick it.
Imagine their outrage on twitter against those evil hick farmers on phones made by near slave labor in factories operated with no environmental regulations. |
And your point is ..... |
My point is as others have pointed out , its hard work and is not as unskilled as people think it is, why does one picker fill five crates an hour and the other two? The usual ire is generally directed at growers by urban types who dont have a clue about anything other than twitter and soy latte.
Its never going to be an attractive job or a career choice, perhaps people should just pay more for fruit. Proper training and accommodation by labour contractor companies might help as well.
might want to look supermarket chains as well, https://www.nswfarmers.org.au/NSWFA/Posts/The_Farmer/Trade/Who_is_eating_Australian_farmers_profits.aspx
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Pi = Infinite = Collingwood = Always
Floreat Pica |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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I saw an apricot grower on the news dumping a truck load of fruit in a neighbours paddock for sheep to eat.
The city people they are trying to get fruit picking aren't those paying rent or a mortgage, it's the unemployed youth with no expenses back home.
It is hard work qnd totally unattractive to today's Australian youth but farmers don't do themselves a favour by charging for shit accomodation. Build a bunkhouse that has a bathroom and laundry and offer that for free. Once off investment. Hire a cook and provide 3 basic meals per day also for free. If you have special dietary requirements then stay somewhere else. Then you might get some city teens to come up.
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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David 
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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Sister-in-law did it on a NSW farm not far away from Canberra a few years back when she got back from France and needed the money. Apparently it was pretty exploitative in terms of work vs pay and the workers were pretty badly treated to boot; she ended up quitting after two days.
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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| Pi wrote: | | Tannin wrote: |
And your point is ..... |
My point is as others have pointed out , its hard work and is not as unskilled as people think it is, why does one picker fill five crates an hour and the other two? The usual ire is generally directed at growers by urban types who dont have a clue about anything other than twitter and soy latte.
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Clueless and offensive post. It's not "city types", it is anyone at all who knows how disgustingly low the wages are. Not to mention how bad the conditions are.
(But no argument about Colesworth, they are scum. But they don't screw farmers in particular, their buying departments screw every single supplier they come into contact with. I used to deal with the barstards back when I was in warehouse management.)
Stui, you make a good point.
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�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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Pi
Joined: 13 Feb 2006
Location: SA
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^
since the entire thread is also clueless and one dimensional I thought I was in the right place.
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Pi = Infinite = Collingwood = Always
Floreat Pica |
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watt price tully
Joined: 15 May 2007
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| stui magpie wrote: | I saw an apricot grower on the news dumping a truck load of fruit in a neighbours paddock for sheep to eat.
The city people they are trying to get fruit picking aren't those paying rent or a mortgage, it's the unemployed youth with no expenses back home.
It is hard work qnd totally unattractive to today's Australian youth but farmers don't do themselves a favour by charging for shit accomodation. Build a bunkhouse that has a bathroom and laundry and offer that for free. Once off investment. Hire a cook and provide 3 basic meals per day also for free. If you have special dietary requirements then stay somewhere else. Then you might get some city teens to come up. |
Correct weight, and that’s Tannin’s point. The employers and the deregulated labour hire companies have a lot to answer for.
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“I even went as far as becoming a Southern Baptist until I realised they didn’t keep ‘em under long enough” Kinky Friedman |
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