Skip to content

‘An indictment of the trade union movement’: Why no one is organising seasonal workers

Farm workers go on unofficial strikes as their temporary visas create barriers to union membership

‘An indictment of the trade union movement’: Why no one is organising seasonal workers
Workers from Romania pick daffodils on a farm near Holbeach, in eastern England in March 2022 | Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images. All rights reserved
Published:

Since arriving in the UK more than two years ago, Julia Quecaño Casimiro has been working hard, but not in the way she expected.

Julia, originally from Bolivia, came to work at a farm in Herefordshire after a recruiter promised she would earn £500 per week picking fruit. But, in her first fortnight on the farm, she was paid £150.

This meagre pay and other poor working conditions pushed her and 90 colleagues to go on strike – the first industrial action of its kind to get UK media attention.