4 ms·

Can you provide some sources for this? I know this happens in the U.S. but this is my first time seeing an allegation like this for an E.U. country.

DanBC 9y ago
Have a look at eg http://www.antislaverycommissioner.co.uk/ http://www.antislaverycommissioner.co.uk/ http://www.antislaverycommissioner.co.uk/about-modern-slavery/modern-slavery-in-the-uk/ http://www.antislaverycommissioner.co.uk/about-modern-slaver... > Those who are enslaved are exploited for the financial gain of their captors. The vulnerable are made to work in cruel conditions for long hours without pay. Examples include women and girls forced into prostitution for profit, young boys made to commit criminal acts against their will and men kept in slave-like conditions in factories. > Last year there was a total of 3805 recorded victims of modern slavery in the UK, a 17% increase on the year before. Victims came from 108 different countries, with the top 3 being Albania, the UK and Vietnam (find out more on the Resources page). > In 2016 the most common types of exploitation for adults and children in the UK, where known, were labour exploitation and sexual exploitation. Individuals in the UK are exploited for labour in various places of work, from hotels to farms, boats to building sites and nail bars to cannabis factories. Labour exploitation spans the agricultural, hospitality, fishing and construction sector. In addition, people are exploited for sexual purposes, including forced prostitution, escort work and pornography.
runarb 9y ago
> Can you provide some sources for this? As I understand it Africans are the main labour source for many farms in Spain. Some articles to read: https://migration.ucdavis.edu/cf/more.php?id=40 https://migration.ucdavis.edu/cf/more.php?id=40 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/feb/07/spain-salad-growers-slaves-charities https://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/feb/07/spain-salad...
- boomboomsubban 9y ago
  While both describe some incredibly poor working conditions, neither suggest that illegal immigrants are large factor. The UC Davis piece says that it existed but the numbers were exaggerated, the Guardian piece says there might be 100,000 in a labor force of 23 million.
wott 9y ago
Not about vineyards, but about market gardening: http://info.arte.tv/fr/espagne-les-naufrages-de-la-mer-de-plastique http://info.arte.tv/fr/espagne-les-naufrages-de-la-mer-de-pl... (Audio in French or German, subtitles in Spanish or Polish.) They say about 40.000 illegals work in those greenhouses.
tepe1 9y ago
There's no proof or sources for this. It's just more malicious nonsense. Salaries in Spain are less because, ironically, many Spanish harvest workers are from Eastern Europe and Poland and they accept these wages. And many of the harvest workers in France are actually people from Spain who come for the higher salaries and better working conditions! None of these people are illegal immigrants. There is a pretty severe imbalance of labor standards and it's questionable whether French winemakers should simply accept this "because the EU." Unfortunately, short of nationalistic marketing campaigns, there's nothing that can practically be done about cheap(er) Spanish wines flooding into France. It becomes a big problem because wine is so culturally important to the French. The solution is to do what the USA does for its corn farmers and simply pay billions in direct subsidy [1] but in Europe these sorts of subsidies are anathema. The result is excess internal competition and a race to the bottom just like what you saw in the USA before the "farm income stablization" bills. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy#United_St...
goldmouth 9y ago
I remember reading about african immigrant being paid 4 euros an hour on Sting's vineyard. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/14/underpaid-illegal-migrants-unwittingly-used-on-idyllic-tuscan-es/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/14/underpaid-illegal... http://www.ibtimes.com/plight-migrant-labor-barolo-italys-king-wines-other-famous-brands-made-workers-under-near-slave http://www.ibtimes.com/plight-migrant-labor-barolo-italys-ki...
- icebraining 9y ago
  Is that very low? 4€/hour at 8h/day, 22 days/month is 700€/month. I don't know how are the salary levels in Italy, but that's quite a bit more than the minimum wage in Portugal, and only slightly less than the minimum wage in Spain at the time.
  - danmaz74 9y ago
    It's way below a livable wage in Italy if it's before taxes.

DanBC 9y ago

Have a look at eg http://www.antislaverycommissioner.co.uk/ http://www.antislaverycommissioner.co.uk/ http://www.antislaverycommissioner.co.uk/about-modern-slavery/modern-slavery-in-the-uk/ http://www.antislaverycommissioner.co.uk/about-modern-slaver... > Those who are enslaved are exploited for the financial gain of their captors. The vulnerable are made to work in cruel conditions for long hours without pay. Examples include women and girls forced into prostitution for profit, young boys made to commit criminal acts against their will and men kept in slave-like conditions in factories. > Last year there was a total of 3805 recorded victims of modern slavery in the UK, a 17% increase on the year before. Victims came from 108 different countries, with the top 3 being Albania, the UK and Vietnam (find out more on the Resources page). > In 2016 the most common types of exploitation for adults and children in the UK, where known, were labour exploitation and sexual exploitation. Individuals in the UK are exploited for labour in various places of work, from hotels to farms, boats to building sites and nail bars to cannabis factories. Labour exploitation spans the agricultural, hospitality, fishing and construction sector. In addition, people are exploited for sexual purposes, including forced prostitution, escort work and pornography.

runarb 9y ago

> Can you provide some sources for this? As I understand it Africans are the main labour source for many farms in Spain. Some articles to read: https://migration.ucdavis.edu/cf/more.php?id=40 https://migration.ucdavis.edu/cf/more.php?id=40 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/feb/07/spain-salad-growers-slaves-charities https://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/feb/07/spain-salad...

boomboomsubban 9y ago
While both describe some incredibly poor working conditions, neither suggest that illegal immigrants are large factor. The UC Davis piece says that it existed but the numbers were exaggerated, the Guardian piece says there might be 100,000 in a labor force of 23 million.

wott 9y ago

Not about vineyards, but about market gardening: http://info.arte.tv/fr/espagne-les-naufrages-de-la-mer-de-plastique http://info.arte.tv/fr/espagne-les-naufrages-de-la-mer-de-pl... (Audio in French or German, subtitles in Spanish or Polish.) They say about 40.000 illegals work in those greenhouses.

tepe1 9y ago

There's no proof or sources for this. It's just more malicious nonsense. Salaries in Spain are less because, ironically, many Spanish harvest workers are from Eastern Europe and Poland and they accept these wages. And many of the harvest workers in France are actually people from Spain who come for the higher salaries and better working conditions! None of these people are illegal immigrants. There is a pretty severe imbalance of labor standards and it's questionable whether French winemakers should simply accept this "because the EU." Unfortunately, short of nationalistic marketing campaigns, there's nothing that can practically be done about cheap(er) Spanish wines flooding into France. It becomes a big problem because wine is so culturally important to the French. The solution is to do what the USA does for its corn farmers and simply pay billions in direct subsidy [1] but in Europe these sorts of subsidies are anathema. The result is excess internal competition and a race to the bottom just like what you saw in the USA before the "farm income stablization" bills. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy#United_St...

goldmouth 9y ago

I remember reading about african immigrant being paid 4 euros an hour on Sting's vineyard. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/14/underpaid-illegal-migrants-unwittingly-used-on-idyllic-tuscan-es/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/14/underpaid-illegal... http://www.ibtimes.com/plight-migrant-labor-barolo-italys-king-wines-other-famous-brands-made-workers-under-near-slave http://www.ibtimes.com/plight-migrant-labor-barolo-italys-ki...

icebraining 9y ago
Is that very low? 4€/hour at 8h/day, 22 days/month is 700€/month. I don't know how are the salary levels in Italy, but that's quite a bit more than the minimum wage in Portugal, and only slightly less than the minimum wage in Spain at the time.
- danmaz74 9y ago
  It's way below a livable wage in Italy if it's before taxes.