Lorry Driver Shortage exposes Capitalism

I have copied this Facebook status from Nancy Taaffe here with her permission. It perfectly sums up the current lorry driver shortage, its causes and its effect. 

🙶The lorry driver shortage does reveal how wages were kept low by the neo liberal EU trading block for 20 years. These EU treaties wanted free movement of labour (not people) so they didn’t have to invest in training or pay workers a decent wage. They were all about cheap labour being moved around for the bosses’ profits. The bosses don’t want to create conditions in the industry where young workers with families can do it — the current lorry driving crisis reveals this.

How wrong were all those snidely liberals who rubbished this lived reality by millions when they voted Leave. As people queue for petrol now, I say this: Look at what the bosses would do to us rather invest in workers!!! Those that worked in those jobs knew what was happening but they weren’t listened to or adequately fought for.

If the union closed shop agreements had existed, and been defended in every workplace, well then we could maybe say the EU did genuinely believe in free movement of PEOPLE. It didn’t and it wasn’t fought for by many unions, the driving down of wages was just acquiesced to. When the EU ref came along the only way these workers could express their rage at their conditions was to vote leave.

My partner is a lorry driver, voted leave, and now could see his wages double. In his mind voting leave worked, at least superficially it looks like it's worked better than any trade union. I don’t think this myself, but you can see that in his mind voting leave did what the trade unions should have done. He’s the son of an Irish immigrant who came here to work in the 50’s so he never condemned workers coming here to find work and feed their families.

However, I remember him telling me that on one training course the whole class including the instructor were Polish. If he hadn’t been there they would have done the class in Polish. He didn’t care, he just relayed the fact. But it does show how cheap EU labour has hollowed out the lorry driving  workforce which is now creating this crisis. They’re talking about importing labour again but because these workers have to face the high cost of living that we have here now. Many won’t want to come and live in squalor for months on end away from their families and I don't blame them.

The answer is for workers to join hands across Europe and fight the greedy bosses who have done this to us, all of us, especially our brothers and sisters in the former stalinist states. The answer is the union closed shop in all workplaces and sector pay bargaining. The answer is to nationalise logistics and plan distribution in a green and logical way.

A Socialist Europe is still the answer.🙷