Germany's Exploited Foreign Workers Amid Coronavirus

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'Germany's exploited foreign workers amid coronavirus.' After major coronavirus outbreaks at several businesses, German lawmakers are finally considering cracking down on the exploitation of foreign workers.

"I will never go back to Germany, not even for a holiday," Mariana Costea, a seasonal worker from Romania, told DW. She spent two months toiling away on a Bavarian farm until she decided that was all she could take.

Mariana was forced to work unpaid overtime, had to sleep in filthy dorms, and was at risk of contracting the coronavirus — as no safety precautions were in place. "I could not accept that eight of us had to share one bedroom and bathroom," she recalls. To make matters worse, 30 seasonal workers were expected to share a single bathroom.

Every morning 14 or 15 of them would pile into a minivan with just eight seats to be driven out to work on the fields. In the evenings, the Eastern Europeans would be shuttled back to their overcrowded accommodation. Costea says those in charge made no effort to enforce social distancing and other precautions to prevent them from contracting the coronavirus.

- We can no longer turn a blind eye: Mariana Costea is one of many Eastern Europeans seasonal workers who have recently spoke out about the catastrophic working and living conditions they have endured in Germany. They have recounted harrowing experiences as meat processing plant workers, delivery men and women, caregivers, construction workers and seasonal farmhands. Yet much of this has been known for years, as German Labor Minister Hubertus Heil openly acknowledged at a recent press conference in Berlin. The difference, however, is that the pandemic has made it impossible to ignore this situation...

Read More, https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-exploited-foreign-workers-amid-coronavirus/a-54360412

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1. Who do the Germans think they are? The US? We'll make hundreds sick just to keep sanitary ...

toilet facilities out of a field.

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2. Really. I knew about the appalling conditions for workers

in German meat processing plants but not in other fields noted. The UK has some issues as well I think and this must be occurring in other EU countries sorry to say.

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3. Its not a national thing. Its a corporate thing. I have a feeling if both countries were looked ...

at hard, the US comes out the real villain. The EU by and large has good and enforced regulations.

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4. How well I know the US is 1st place, the EU looks heavenly

by comparison, but buziness is buzinezz and things seem to be slipping. Hopefully Germany will follow thru to reform some of these issues.

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5. When I buy food items and I have the option of EU (not E-U which is the US), I buy EU ...

The GOP has wrecked the quality and the regulations for food.

I have to admit: I was shocked by the report of that Romanian worker and how her experience mirrors the experience of migrant workers in the US.

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6. The US food system needs a full overhaul, it's toxic.

Note this DW article on 'Europe's Meat Industry and Covid,' shades of Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle' 1906 about Chicago.

A while back I noticed articles about immigrant workers, mostly from India and other parts of Asia who were told about jobs in the hospitality industry in Europe, mostly the UK but the reality was nothing like what was described.

Dishonest brokers who collected a sizeable fee told seekers they would fill jobs as cooks, servers, etc. with decent wages and conditions. However, in a couple stories laborers told of toiling in Scotland at resorts where the hours were massive, the housing was filthy barracks, their passports were confiscated and they couldn't protest at all to abusive managers. The workers felt imprisoned.
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- 'Europe's meat industry is a coronavirus hot spot,' DW, June 26, 2020,

German meat producer Tönnies has been lambasted after scores of its workers contracted COVID-19. Poor working conditions are to blame. Many other European companies, meanwhile, are not treating their workers much better...

Many meat processing companies in EU member states like Belgium, France, Ireland, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands have seen coronavirus outbreaks at their plants since April 2020.

Ireland's meat industry was the second-worst hit after Germany. A total of 950 laborers contracted COVID-19 at 19 plants. At some sites, one-fourth of the entire workforce fell ill. Yet despite such outbreaks, none of the Irish plants were shut down.

When a coronavirus outbreak hit a Dutch abattoir in Groenlo, near the German border, it left 20% of the workforce infected, leading food manufacturer Vion to shut down the site in May. Workers were only tested, however, after German authorities called for this, as most laborers were living in Germany and commuting across the border to their workplace.

Two French slaughterhouses reported virus outbreaks in mid-May. So far, 180 laborers have tested positive for the pathogen. Only one site located in Val de Loire was shut by local French authorities after 10% of the workforce fell ill.

At a plant in Binéfar, Spain, operated by Litera Meat, some 200 infections were reported.


https://www.dw.com/en/europes-meat-industry-is-a-coronavirus-hot-spot/a-53961438