“WThey are strong people in Poland,” Piotr Zabiec said with a smile. On a farm near Chelmsford, Essex, it was another busy day to process turkeys and take a break. “Without us, maybe Christmas There will be no turkey on your table at that time. “
The 41-year-old left his fiancee and two children at his home in the downtown city of Włocławek. At the expense of the daily work of health and safety inspectors and taxi drivers, he eliminated thousands of turkey producer Kelly Bronze. The innards of a bird. This is the first time he has come to work in the UK and was encouraged by friends who have spent the past few December in the UK.
“To be honest, I’m here for money,” Zabiec said, explaining that he hopes to earn £2,500 from a month’s work, which is about four times his usual monthly salary. He joked that he might take a four-month break after returning. Poland.
Despite Covid’s visa barriers and travel challenges, Zabiec is one of an estimated 3,000 workers — mainly from Poland and Eastern Europe — who traveled to the UK to answer questions Last minute call from the government Help deliver the Christmas turkey to tables across the country on time.
KellyBronze’s 45-person temporary team are foreign workers, including truck drivers and butchers. They have Saved the first Christmas after Brexit, After a year of widespread staff shortages, especially in the food processing and logistics sectors.
After months of pleading from the poultry industry, Weeks of negative headlinesIn early October, the government announced an immigration policy to turn around, allowing up to 5,500 seasonal poultry workers and 5,000 HGV drivers to enter the UK on emergency visas.
All EU nationals who work at KellyBronze and usually do not live in the UK must apply for the Temporary Seasonal Workers Program, while some others have already obtained permanent residency status.
This year, about 20 normal Christmas employees did not travel, either because they did not want to fill in the visa documents, or because they did not have a passport, because they were free to travel around the EU-before going to the UK Brexit – Use their Polish ID card.
Others were almost unsuccessful because they have not obtained work permits for a long time.
For the past seven years, farmer Dominik Dycka traveled to the UK in late November and had a safe journey. Twelve days after submitting the temporary worker visa application, he drove to Essex with three other workers. He expects to get a reply within 14 days, but before it is approved.
When he was stopped by British border officials in Dunkirk, he was told not to cross the English Channel. This led him to scramble to get his three passengers — their visas were approved — to meet the bus carrying other workers so they could go to Essex.
Meanwhile, Dycka waited for a response from the Ministry of Interior in a hotel in Calais, but waited in vain for a few days before driving back to Poland. When his visa finally arrived, a few days later than expected, the company booked a flight to the UK for him.
“I feel really bad,” Dika said in Polish, translated by a colleague. “them [the border officials] Treat me like I did something wrong. But I did nothing wrong, I just wanted to come to work. “
This experience allowed the 39-year-old to return to the UK for the ninth time next year, even though the thousands of pounds he earned in December were crucial to supporting his parents’ potato and crop farms in Poland.
Several workers, including those with resident status, said that although they had all the necessary documents, they felt as if they were “interrogated” when they arrived at the border.
However, many people said that their treatment by officials is in stark contrast to their treatment on the farm, and they return there year after year.
The 43-year-old supervisor Jacek Marciniak has been working for the family business for 20 years.He spends half of the year with KellyBronze, including the five months of spring and summer, at the company hatchery a few miles away, where the chicks of the new season begin their lives, and then in The pre-Christmas boomThis job is also a family affair, and Marciniak’s wife, brother and sister-in-law Patrycja are also preparing Christmas turkeys.
Processing work is not for the faint-hearted. Wearing white coats, hair nets and masks, the team spent long days among the cold plants, hand-picking, preparing and packaging high-quality birds, which were hung for two weeks after slaughter. But there is a joyous atmosphere, the workers chat with each other or sing to songs on the radio.
“This is a very difficult job, and not many Britons like to work here,” said Maciek Mirolewicz, who worked for a window company in Kobe for the rest of a year. “Money is good for us, and we work hard without a problem.”
Company owner Paul Kelly knows the value of his seasonal team, who will handle 35,000 turkeys this year.
“When they arrived, I gave them a hug, when they left, I gave them a hug,” Kelly said, investigating the activities in the hall. “Without them, I would have no business.”
This year, Kelly remembered what he called the “dark days”. Before Poland and seven other Eastern European countries joined the European Union in 2004, he worked hard to recruit additional seasonal employees from the surrounding areas of rural Essex.
“I’m usually a positive person, but the past few years have been really frustrating for me,” Kelly said.
“Before Brexit, I am optimistic that many people’s demand for better quality turkey is increasing, and we can sell more and more. But what if we can’t let them pick it?”
He added that he cannot reduce labor by automating parts of the process because his more expensive premium turkeys must be picked by hand instead of machines.
Kelly calculated that the cost per worker for the government plan was £500, and, like many people in agriculture, complained that the decision was too late. The British Poultry Council estimates that more than half of the 5,500 visa quota will be filled, not because of insufficient demand, but because there is not enough time to arrange workers’ visa applications and travel. Despite the plea of farmers, the government’s annual seasonal worker pilot program— Allow 30,000 people from anywhere in the world Work in the UK every year-limited to those engaged in edible gardening, fruit picking and crops.
The company founded by Kelly’s grandfather is celebrating its 50th anniversary, but he is worried that future staffing difficulties may force him to reduce the number of turkeys.
If others make the same decision, the 10 million turkeys that form the core of many families’ Christmas dinners will eventually be imported from abroad.
The meat processing industry needs thousands of additional workers every year to slaughter and process holiday poultry. However, two-thirds of the meat processing industry in the UK is made up of non-UK workers, and 15% of its 95,000 workforce is insufficient.Before the pandemic, it was already trying to fill the vacancies, plus Brexit – Leading to the return of many EU nationals to their home countries.
At the same time, Marciniak, who has recruited many of his Włocławek residents to the UK over the years, realized that his compatriots might decide to look for high-paying jobs elsewhere in the EU in the future.
“They can go wherever they want in Europe. If you want to find it, there is a lot of work to do, and maybe they will look for different places after all this happens,” he said.
When the work is complete and the customer collects the last bird from the gate of the farm, the Polish workers will set off home, where they will relax and enjoy Christmas, but enjoy a traditional carp meal instead of a turkey dinner on December 24.
