Locals hit back over use of EU workers

For many working class folk, the berries offered some much needed income in an era when money was scarce.

Berry buses would come around the housing schemes to transport the nabblers to the fields across Angus and Perthshire.

Courier readers were left angry this week after it was reported that tonnes of strawberries and raspberries were left to rot in local fields due a lack of fruit pickers.

The debate gathered more than 100 comments on our Facebook page where many called for the “berry buses” to return while others put the blame on farmers for “ignoring local people” and employing migrant workers.

Jacqueline Mckay said: “I can’t understand why local people can’t go and do the picking?

“I’m sure plenty folk would like to earn money like we did when we were young and went to the berries.”

Sarah Louise Muir said: “We used to go every year.

“You used to see huge squads waiting on all the different buses.

“We worked hard, got the money for our uniforms and the shows and if you were lucky a decent tan.

“We were loyal to the farmers but sadly the loyalty wasn’t returned when we were shunned for the machines and then the European pickers.

“I would gladly have taken my kids to the berries – it gave you a sense of work, got you out and if you worked you could get what you wanted.”

David Taylor added: “Serves the farmers right for ignoring the local people and instead only employed foreign pickers.

“I’m afraid it would be very difficult to get the locals to pick them now as a generation has been missed.”

Fred Bruce said: “When we were little, we had to go berry picking, tattie picking and daffodil picking to get extra pocket money and even pay for our own school clothes but the farmers chose to employ European workers.

“Now the European workers frown upon this kind of work, so the farmers have no one to pick their fruit, so they have no one to blame but their own greedy selves.”