PieFed
On farms around Australia, 21st-century slaves are picking our food
Gershom’s experience reflects a much bigger shift in Australian agriculture. Rather than employing workers directly, many growers rely on labour hire contractors to recruit and supply seasonal workers during harvest.
Australia’s growing reliance on temporary migrant labour has fuelled a booming labour hire industry, with contractors sitting between growers and workers, often recruiting, transporting and housing them.
While some operate legally, others prey on vulnerable migrant workers, paying them cash, well below the minimum wage.
“I don’t have any voice. I don’t have any power,” Gershom says.
If you didn’t see 4Corners last night, it’s worth watching. It continues from last week, this episode looking at exploitative labour practices both here and o’s, showing how little we know about the cultivation and processing of the food and treats we eat.
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Oh, we know. We choose to ignore it. There is a huge rotation of islander labour powering Australian horticulture. They replaced other itinerant labour years ago.
Aussies voted with their feet not to put up with the exploitative conditions on such farms and plenty of horror stories from backpackers over the years. I am sure it is an important form of income for pacific island families though not sure how much they get to take home but dressing it up some sort of foreign aid program is very iffy.
Go read up on people like Robert Towns and slavery in Australia. Since convict labour dried up there has been a constant search for cheap labour to exploit. The truth of the matter is White Australia policy was only ever partly racist in motivation and was also supported by those against exploitation of workers and that always gets missed by modern society who take workers rights for granted. This is where morons like Hanson fail. It is all culture, religion and skin colour with those fuckwits which mean nothing at all. What counts is a fair go for working Australians while people like her boss Gina would prefer $2 a day Africans. If Labor ever needs to resort to matching the far right on immigration and work visas they need to do it on the basis of fair working conditions or not at all.