5/27/2020

Headline, May 28 2019/ ''' ''STUDENTS -*WORKERS*- STARRING'' ''' : GERMANY


''' ''STUDENTS -*WORKERS*- STARRING'' ''' :

GERMANY




''YOUR EXCELLENCY : CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL:

The World Students Society rises to give the German people, and for your sterling leadership, a standing ovation.''

''The World Students Society - is the exclusive ownership of every student of Germany, just as it is the exclusive ownership of every student in the world.''

The World Students Society is the most democratic organization in the world. All students stand equal. ''Only great things attempted and only great things done. All in the honors and service of Mankind.''

Typically of a great nation - Germany, looked for creative solutions. After the government shut down most of the economy in mid-March-

It encouraged all students and people who lost their jobs in restaurants and bars and even elsewhere, to lend a helping hand in the fields.

Across the world, the pandemic has forced institutions, governments and individuals to improvise, sometimes rewriting rules on the fly or testing methods with little precedent.

Germany went on to create travel bubbles to allow cross-border movement. Britain also turned to charter flights to address a shortage of migrant workers.

In a normal season, as many as 300,000 migrant workers from Eastern Europe make their way to Germany to harvest asparagus, pick strawberries and plant late-growing crops.

This season has been anything but normal. Just as the first harvest was to begin. Germany and its neighbors to the east slammed shut their borders to contain the coronavirus, cutting off a crucial supply of farm labor and putting crops at risk.

Farmers pleaded with the government to find a solution to the resulting labor shortage, arguing that German's food security was in jeopardy.

The German government responded by allowing farmers to fly workers in from Romania and Bulgaria - an example of the sort of improvised solutions that countries around the world have to take during the pandemic.

The move has ended the labor shortage but not solved it. It has also raised concerns about importing cases of infection.

Under the agreement with the government in Berlin, German farmers were allowed to organize and pay for charter flights for up to 40,000 migrant workers a month in April and May.

Yet the cost and logistical challenges have meant that only about 28,000 workers have been flown in so far, well short of the number needed.

''It was difficult with all of the organization, the bureaucracy and the enormous costs associated with the action,'' said Florian Bogensberger, whose farming operation in the Hallertau region of state of Bavaria has been crippled by the travel lockdown.

But farmers found that many, many students were looking for part-time work, not the 12-hour days seasonal workers typically put in, said Bernhard Krisken, head of the German farmers Association.

''Everybody feels a bit scared, but we also need to work,'' said Gabriel Moraru, 47, a Romanian who has done seasonal work at the Bogensberger farm for the past decade. The work is familiar, he said, but the safety measures are not.

And the redeployment of those people into the fields raised health questions, too, Mr. Krisken said, ''large numbers of people coming and going from the fields back to their communities every day'' seemed only to encourage the spread of the virus.

The airlift agreement came with a long sett of rules and additional costs, all of which fell to the farmers.

The easiest part, Mr. Bogensberger said, has been maintaining social distancing in the fields, where the hops are grown in rows several feet apart, with one worker per row.

But the evenings that workers have spent together over drinks and barbecue won't be happening this season. ''That is a washout,'' he said. ''That's the saddest part.''

How the workers will return home, and how late-season reinforcements will arrive, are questions still to be answered.

After the brief, but intense season of wrapping, young hop plants were embedded in the ground, the Romanian workers at Mr. Bogensberger's farm would normally drive back home through Austria and Hungary. Now, things are less certain.

Nor is it clear how Mr. Bogensberger will get more people workers later in the year. He is hoping that a recent decision to re-open the borders to Germany's west and south will make it easier to find a solution.

''It has to work,'' he said. ''Worse would be no harvest at all.''

The Honor and Serving of the latest ''Global Operational Practices'' in the world, in lockdowns, continues. The World Students Society thanks authors Melissa Eddy and Kit Gillet.

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Grandparents, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world.

See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and 'Twitter - !E-WOW!' - The Ecosystem 2011:

''' Seasons So Seamless '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

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