Berry pickers in new strike in northern Sweden
Published: 10 Aug 10 10:56 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/28282/20100810/
A group of Vietnamese berry pickers have left their place of employment in Baggård south of Umeå in northern Sweden in protest against their pay and working conditions and have expressed a wish to go home, local media have reported.
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"They have sat down in protest and have set up banners declaring SOS Vietnam," Magnus Haglund at Nordmaling municipality to the news agency TT.
The strike action is not yet become an issue for the municipality, said Haglund, who does not know why the berry pickers are striking.
Berry purchaser Kamala Karlsson, who has signed a contract with the Vietnamese recruitment firm which has employed the berry pickers, is disappointed.
"They think that they can come to Sweden and protest and not pick any berries, that is what has happened," said Kamala Karlsson.
The Local has previously reported that over 100 Chinese berry pickers went on a 15-kilometre overnight march from Långsjöby outside of Storuman on Thursday to protest their salaries and conditions.
Thousands of seasonal workers from Asia, most of them from Thailand, come to Sweden each summer mainly to pick wild berries in the north under sometimes
difficult working conditions.
After a disastrous season last year sent many of the foreign berry pickers home weighed down by debt instead of profits, they have this year for the first time been provided with contracts guaranteeing them a monthly wage of at least 16,372 kronor ($2,321).
Some Swedish unions have however said that the minimum salary is insufficient, producing evidence that in some cases it is hardly enough to cover the money the workers have to shell out for things like plane tickets, housing and car rental.
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dont think sweden is dream land and ppl will be millionaire.nothing in sweden,as i am IT professional since 1 year i have not get no job in sweden even though they dont call you for the interview.even thier own ppl if you see IT technician job for example own ppl education is high school and he is IT technician .technician cannt do research he is only technicain. here is sweden very foreign qualified bt they give preference to the refugee
I'm sorry but do you speak Swedish? A lot of people are very quick to dismiss Sweden when they come here and fail to get work within their chosen profession, however if you do not speak fluent Swedish, and want to work for a Swedish company I think it is fair that you will have difficulties in finding work.
ppl cann't just come and get in a different culture. You should show respect to the local culture in the first place. If ur employers and customers cann't even communicate with u in a convinient way, how could they expect and trust your profession and loyalty.
Perhaps you should read the last sentence again
"the minimum salary is insufficient, producing evidence that in some cases it is hardly enough to cover the money the workers have to shell out for things like plane tickets, housing and car rental."
- most of these workers are being charged around 16,000 SEK in expenses that they must pay back to the employer - the press in Dalarna got hold of a contract and this was the amount of deductions
- the salary is not guaranteed either - these are productivty contracts - you must pick the 'standard' amount to earn 16K per month - the standard in the contract seen by Dalarnas Tidning was 90kg of blueberries - per day! I don't know if you have ever picked the tiny woodland blueberries but 90kg per day is insance
These guys will end up in debt - the contracts are a scam - but there are still gullible people who believe you net paid 16,000SEK for picking bluberries
@summo
This is because the employers have abolutely no intention of paying anything near 16K - they intend to pay 1-2K - How many students do you knoe who will work for 300SEK ($25) per week? - the contract seen by the media last week was for 17,000SEK and decidctions were 16,000
One of the big scams this year is that the berry companies have hired abandoned school buildings
they pay peanuts to rent these buildings (maybe 10000 max as not all have fire certificates) - however they 'charge' hotel rates of 150kr per day (in the contract the newspaper say) or about 5000 per month - so for the group of 200 on strike - they get to withhold 1million in salary
"been provided with contracts guaranteeing them a monthly wage of at least 16,372 kronor ($2,321)."
Where i come from the word "guarantee" and "contract" mean EVERYTHING.
So your saying when an immigrant signs a contract in Sweden GUARENTEEING certain benefits,wages, and rights, that the employer has "no intentions of paying it" is allowed and not a breach of contract?
If i had my contract broken i wouldn't be striking i would be in court.
i am sure there are a lot of loop holes for the benefit of the employer but why? and why is it allowed?
Swedish A-kassan has 200.000 people that can pick berries instead imo.
I think it is easier for people here just to sit at home and play on the playstation and lift benefits.
Of course the contract must says that you get the minimum wage, and you are GUARANTEED to get this money. Somewhere else on this contract it also says that you have to pay some fee to the employer in order to get this contract. This fee consists of the flight ticket, food and loungding, which is like 90% of the salary you get, effectively reducing your salary to a fraction of the written sum. The employers were counting on that. In the end they paid next to nothing to each berry picker. breaching contract is not allowed in Sweden. However, the berry pickers are not properly informed of the working condition. And most of these workers tend to be uneducated. If they knew how to bring the case to the court in Sweden or Vietnamn, then they would definitely do it. The only reason this kind of scam has gone unnoticed for so long is because nobody stood up against it. My speculations is that when the berry pickers from last year went home with massive debt instead of profit, they told their countrymen about what happened here. The berry pickers this year have become much more vigilant.
On a side note, you can't pick berry all year long. The harvesting season usually lasts little over a month.