Following on from the discussion of bloody-mindedness in my walk in the woods on the weekend our conversation veered towards another minefield-immigration.
My friend started the discussion mentioning that in much of the agricultural sector in the region there would be insufficient workers if it were not for the East Europeans.
He went on to explain how the Polish workers who were being made redundant went and shook hands with the factory owner and offered condolences for the collapse of the enterprise! They had apparently experienced the closure of factories before and understood the demands of the marketplace.
The local meatpacking firm has a large contingent of Bulgarians. The English workforce had greeted the first Bulgarian with grins and chicanery-he couldn't even speak English! They had to teach him with sign language.
At the end of the first week he would say "good morning boss" as he showed up on time and said "good evening boss" as he ended his shift.
At the end of the first month he could speak enough to ask if he could introduce a fellow Bulgarian, who followed the same procedure.
They showed up on time. They didn't take "sickie" days, and they were good workers. The English workers with the same standards welcomed them. The atmosphere in the plant improved. The values of punctuality, loyalty and reliability made everyone's workload easier to plan and schedule.
The strange thing is that my friend, as well as our Polish cleaner and gardener and apparently most of the nation think that immigration has to be managed better. You can't just let everyone in, even if they are good workers.
The challenge is to get the English to work. I think Frank "Think the Unthinkable" Fields might find that his time has come.
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