Third week at the courier depot completed. Physical state: tired, not wrecked like last time but certainly not godlike. Slight twinge in my back but nothing serious (touch wood). Cycled two days out of five this week, partly to avoid exhaustion and partly because it’s really quite bloody cold out there and while I’m not a fair weather cyclist by any stretch it’s just not healthy getting sweaty for an hour in freezing conditions. Further to that I’ve had the snots all week, which has been pleasant. But enough of my relative well being, fascinating as it must be.
Today all the temps got a phone call. You know that scenario where migrant workers in the southern United States are digging a ditch by a freeway and the charge-hand drives up in his pickup with a list of names of who will be coming back the next day? It’s a bit like that only it’s all done with mobile phones. Polish Rob was the first to get the call before he’d even arrived saying he wouldn’t be needed next week. Soon after I got the call saying I would. Which was nice, if a little fucking awkward. Rob was a gentleman about it despite the fact that he’d been there three weeks longer than me and is by far a better box lugger than I. He called me “old man” the other day when my cold was affecting my 3D Tetris skills which was weird and possibly marks some kind of milestone in my life, but I digress.
Rob’s a funny one. Like I said, he’s one of the many (millions of, apparently) Polish migrant workers in the country at the moment thanks to the country’s recent joining of the EU. I remember back when I lived in east London (circa 2002) getting a night bus home and being surrounded by Slavic voices and since the East End has always been the first port of call for immigrant communities it’s not too surprising that pretty much every industrial job I’ve done over the last 6 months has had a Polish guy or two working there.
On the whole I’ve gotten on with them. Like many immigrants (and I’m aware I’m generalising horribly here but please bear with me – it’s either this or I qualify every statement extensively, or just write nothing at all) they’re hard working, friendly and shockingly over qualified, which probably explains why I get on with most of them. For example, one guy I was working with at an office supplies dispatch warehouse was wearing a Linux t-shirt so we got talking about open source and computers and stuff which inevitably turned to me asking why he doesn’t get some computer related work, with him inevitably replying that his English wasn’t good enough for the entry level jobs but that he was trying (and working on his English).
Rob didn’t seem to have any particular skills but he had a plan. He was taking English lessons during the day (which continued during our conversations with those awkward questions about how the language works to which native English speakers just shrug because they don’t know – it just does, somehow) and working at night, trying to save up enough to get a driving license so he could get a better job so he and his girlfriend could settle down and raise a family. Only he wasn’t getting enough steady work to pay for the driving lessons and his relationship with his girlfriend was pretty rocky. And he was tired all the time.
And now he’s been told by the gaffers at the depot that, given the choice of four temps from the agency they’d rather not have him. Which, amongst other things, meant the parcels were not gently stacked in the truck this evening.
What’s interesting, if that’s the right word, is the choice of temps consisted of a white English guy (myself) a black guy, an Asian guy and a Polish guy. I’m as native as it gets in this mongrel nation. The black and Asian guys are probably 3rd generation. Rob’s been here for a year at most. Can you see what I’m getting at?
I can only speak from observation and I wouldn’t give much weight to my opinions but it seems to me that in the years since I first did the industrial temping game in my early 20s the black and Asian workforce has become a lot more integrated, a least at the manual labour level. In 1994 or so I worked at a factory where the factory floor was entirely staffed by Asians in red hats supervised entirely by whites in white hats while the dispatch area was white only. There was no movement between departments and the whole place stank of some kind of institutionalised apartheid. Conversely in most of the places I work now you’ll find a full spectrum of Asian, African, Caribbean and white workers mixing at all levels from shop floor drudgery to lower management (upper management is still the preserve of the overweight middle-aged white man but that’s a whole ‘nother issue). While I’m not denying the frequent racism that does exist in this country this does strike me as a glimmer of hope for the future.
Except, of course, for the Poles. They’re at the bottom.
A very good post. Thought provoking.
For what it’s worth, it is my observation in the States (a land basically made up of immigrants) that its future is largely dependent upon the latest influx of immigrants. I am sure the “blue-bloods” would disagree since they are the ones who suffer the most from the successes of the latest wave of immigrants. The huge wave of Eastern Europeans into America 100 years ago created a massive increase in wealth for the country. Yes, they were exploited, but they got what they were looking forward too as well – a chance to share in the American Dream.
Fast forward 100 years to today and this seems to be what is bringing so many Poles to the UK. There are lots of jobs for Eastern Europeans here: in my area it’s picking brussel sprouts in sub-zero temperatures with floodlights at 4 a.m. And I am sure many of the Polish workers are over-qualified for what they do. But apparently it’s better than the options back home or they wouldn’t be here.
In America the latest wave of immigrants start out at the bottom but because of their vision they and their children and grandchildren move up in society. This has never been more true than with the Asian communities that arrived in the 1970s and 1980s.
So Rob has his problems and I wouldn’t say they were slight. But he also has the opportunity to advance because he is here and not still in Poland (at least that is what he believes and that is all that is important for him). My guess is that he will do well. Life has setbacks and he knows it better than most.
Your observations about the work place are indeed most positive for social integration. Birmingham obviously has its tensions and its potential problems resulting from high levels of immigration but I would have to say that it is doing a lot better than American cities of a similar size.
On the bright side local government does get one thing right in that equality from top to bottom exists in the majority of local government situations. Our resident demographic is about 33% Black & Minority Ethnic and the mix across the company is the same with the top tier of the company being being a mixture of different genders and racial groups. The only criticism I can level about this admirable mix of people in senior positions is the Chief Exec (who is St Lucian) who has inherited (and I’m quoting him here) the great story telling tradition of his country. The up shot of this is that simple questions which would normally just need a ‘yes’ or ‘April’ as an answer sprout amazing tangents and story after story and take hours to deliver (and I mean hours) and leave you unsure as to what the question you originally posed was… This of course then poses the question – is there occasionally good reasons (based on ethnic background) why some people shouldn’t get promoted, in his case the inabilaty to respond to the question ‘tea or coffee’ in any less that 5 hours…