Food, beer, toys, medical kit. Why is Britain running out of everything?
-Poor pay and conditions for HGV drivers and the loss of many thousands of EU workers are plunging the UKs supply chain into crisis

食物、啤酒、玩具、医药包。为什么英国什么都快用完了？
——载重货车司机的低工资和恶劣的工作环境，以及成千上万的欧盟工人的流失，使英国的供应链陷入危机


(A precarious economy leads to limited choices in the shops.)

（经济不稳定导致商店的选择有限。）
新闻：

Gaps on supermarket shelves. Fast food outlets pulling milkshakes and bottled drinks from their menus. Restaurants running out of chicken and closing. Empty vending machines. Online grocery orders full of substitutions. Fruit and vegetables rotting in the fields.

超市货架上的空位；快餐店将奶昔和瓶装饮料从菜单上撤下；餐馆的鸡肉都卖光了，快关门了；空的自动售货机；网上的杂货订单满是替代品；水果和蔬菜在地里腐烂。

These are just some of the most visible signs of Britain’s deepening supply chain crisis, which has seen stocks in shops and warehouses slump to their lowest levels since the Confederation of British Industry began surveying in 1983.

这些只是英国供应链危机加剧的一些最明显迹象，商店和仓库库存已跌至1983年英国工业联合会开始调查以来的最低水平。

It has led to dire warnings that the UK’s food system, which has been hit hardest by delivery delays and labour shortages, is in danger of reaching breaking point and may not be able to meet Christmas demand.

这引发了可怕的警告：英国的食品体系正面临崩溃的危险，可能无法满足圣诞节的需求。英国的食品体系受到配送延误和劳动力短缺的打击最为严重。

Customers may have only started noticing this crisis in recent weeks but it has been building for months, with businesses, road hauliers and transport unxs telling ministers at the start of the summer that a shortage of lorry drivers could lead to empty shelves.

消费者可能只是在最近几周才开始注意到这场危机，但它其实已经酝酿了几个月，企业、公路货运公司和运输工会在夏季初就告诉大臣们，卡车司机短缺可能导致货架空空如也。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


The logistics industry estimates around 100,000 more HGV drivers are needed to get goods and materials moving again. The shortfall has emerged, in part, because 14,000 EU drivers have left the country and only 600 have returned since Brexit. The pandemic has also disrupted training and tests for new drivers: around 40,000 HGV driving tests were cancelled last year.

物流行业估计，要让货物和材料重新运输，还需要大约10万名载重货车司机。出现这一缺口的部分原因在于，自英国脱欧以来，已有1.4万名欧盟司机离开了英国，只有600名司机返回。疫情还扰乱了对新司机的培训和考试：去年取消了约4万场载重货车司机的驾驶考试。

However, for unxs and some drivers, the pandemic and Brexit have only exposed the limitations of the low-wage, precarious employment model that has come to dominate the logistics sector. “All the headlines are blaming Brexit and Covid. But they are just the straws that have broken the camel’s back,” says Adrian Jones, a national officer for Unite, which represents workers throughout vital supply chains, from warehouse staff to lorry drivers. “This has come after decades of drivers being undervalued. Ten pounds an hour does not reflect the skills and knowledge needed to even start work as a lorry driver, or the responsibility of driving 44-tonne vehicles on congested roads in the UK. They are treated with disdain.”

然而，对工会和一些司机来说，疫情和英国脱欧只是暴露了已经主宰了物流行业的低工资、不稳定的就业模式的瓶颈。“所有的头条新闻都在指责英国脱欧和新冠肺炎。但这些只是压垮骆驼的最后一根稻草。”代表着从仓库员工到卡车司机等整个关键供应链上的工人的组织Unite的全国官员阿德里安·琼斯说。“几十年来，司机的价值一直被低估。每小时10英镑的薪资水平并不能反映出作为一名卡车司机开始工作所需的技能和知识，或者在英国拥堵的道路上驾驶44吨重的车辆的责任。他们被轻视了。”

It’s not hard to find dissatisfaction on the roads. Mark Hughes, 44, who has been driving HGVs for 20 years, says pay has barely changed in his working life, with retention bonuses only emerging in the last few months as companies have attempted belatedly to hang on to their drivers. “My stepdad was a driver. He was bringing home £550 a week,” says Hughes while waiting for turkey products to be offloaded from his lorry in Hemel Hempstead. “Last year – before Brexit and Covid – drivers were earning £550,” he says. “There’s been nothing for 35 years.”

在路上不难发现不满情绪。44岁的马克·休斯开了20年的重型货车，他说，在他的职业生涯中，他的工资几乎没有变化，留任奖金只是在过去几个月才出现，因为公司试图留住它们的司机，但为时已晚。“我继父是一名司机。他每周能挣550英镑。”休斯在赫默尔亨普斯特德等着从卡车上卸下火鸡产品时说。他说：“去年，在英国脱欧和新冠疫情之前，司机的收入是550英镑。35年来一点变动都没有。”

A lack of facilities and time pressure means drivers are often forced to use their cabs as toilets and wash by the side of the road. “The main thing you need for this job is a blanket, pillow, wet wipes and plastic bags,” says Hughes. “The laybys are sometimes covered in shit so it’s safer to crap in a plastic bag inside your cab. You wash with soap and water in a plastic bowl. It is degrading. It’s like living on the streets.”

由于缺乏设施且面临时间压力，司机常常被迫把自己的驾驶室当作厕所，并停在路边清洗。休斯说：“这份工作需要的主要东西就是毯子、枕头、湿巾和塑料袋。停车处有时满地都是粪便，所以拿塑料袋在驾驶室里大便更安全。你用肥皂和水在一个塑料碗里洗（屁股）。这是很侮辱人的。感觉就像街头乞丐一样。”


(HGV driver Mark Hughes in the cab of his lorry. ‘It’s like living on the streets.’)

（货车司机马克·休斯坐在卡车驾驶室里。“感觉就像街头乞丐一样”）

Sitting behind a wheel for 15 hours a day and eating on the go ravages drivers’ bodies. Unpublished analysis by Unite shows over the last 10 years the number of drivers who have had their licences suspended or revoked for medical reasons has doubled. Hughes subsists on a diet of service-station food and takeaways because there are few other options. “I’ve just been diagnosed with diabetes,” he says. “You spend all day sat down. My legs and ankles hurt. I get cramps. I’ve smashed 10 Nurofen already this week.”

每天坐15个小时的车，并且边开车边吃饭，会对司机的身体造成伤害。Unite未发表的分析显示，在过去10年里，因医疗原因被中止或吊销驾照的司机数量翻了一番。休斯靠服务站食品和外卖填饱肚子，因为几乎没有其他选择。“我刚刚被诊断出患有糖尿病，”他说。“你一整天都坐着。我的腿和脚踝都疼。我肌肉抽筋。这周我已经吃了10个努乐芬了。”

Unsurprisingly, some quit altogether. Official figures suggest thousands of HGV licence holders are not actually driving HGVs. Gordon Nicoll is one of them. He quit this month, fed up with woeful roadside facilities, near-misses and stagnant wages. “The money is rubbish, the conditions are rubbish, and you are treated like crap,” he says from his home in West Lothian. “And then you’re expected to move mountains in [an] impossibly short time.”

不出所料，有些人干脆辞职了。官方数据显示，成千上万的载重卡车驾照持有人实际上并没有驾驶卡车。戈登·尼科尔就是其中之一。他这个月辞职了，因为他受够了糟糕的路边设施、事故险情和停滞不涨的工资。“待遇垃圾，条件垃圾，你也像垃圾一样被对待，”他在西洛锡安的家中说道。“然后你要在极短的时间内拼命开。”

Instead of working 15-hour days delivering to supermarkets during the pandemic, Nicoll, 42, now works as a prop assistant in the film industry. He is not tempted by the financial inducements on offer from the likes of Tesco, which has advertised joining bonuses of £1,000 for HGV drivers. “It’s not worth it,” he says without hesitating.

42岁的尼科尔在疫情期间没有每天工作15个小时，而是在电影行业担任道具助理。他不喜欢乐购等公司提供的经济诱惑——乐购已宣布为载重物货车司机提供1000英镑的加入奖金。“不值得，”他毫不犹豫地说。

Robert Skidelsky, the economist and biographer of John Maynard Keynes, blames decades of underinvestment for many of the skills shortages cited by employers. “Ever since the 1960s the UK has suffered a relative lack of investment compared to the rest of Europe and the US. unxs were blamed for deterring private sector investment right up to the 1980s, which Margaret Thatcher used to justify undermining unx power.

经济学家、约翰·梅纳德·凯恩斯传记作者罗伯特·斯基德尔斯基将雇主们提到的许多技能短缺归咎于数十年的投资不足。“自上世纪60年代以来，与欧洲其他国家和美国相比，英国一直面临着投资相对匮乏的问题。直到上世纪80年代，工会一直被指责阻碍了私营部门的投资，玛格丽特·撒切尔曾以此为削弱工会力量的理由。

“We have always had a huge lack of investment in our people. Technical education has been, and continues to be, a poor relation.”

“我们一直严重缺乏对员工的投资。技术教育一直是，并将继续是一个不重要的事项。”

For Unite, this shows why the quick fixes, including bringing in more temporary drivers from overseas, will not address the underlying problems, which are depleting an already ageing workforce and putting off new drivers. Jones points out the industry is not just facing a recruitment crisis but also a retention crisis. “We are short of about 100,000 HGV drivers right now. But there are about 75,000 to 85,000 HGV licence holders who do not drive,” he says. “Many are dropping out because of the lack of respect.”

对Unite来说，这表明了为什么速成措施，包括从海外引进更多临时司机，无法解决根本问题，这些问题正在消耗已经老龄化的劳动力，并让新司机却步。琼斯指出，该行业不仅面临招聘危机，还面临留用危机。“我们现在缺少大约10万卡车司机。但大约有7.5万至8.5万卡车驾照持有人不开车。很多人因为缺乏尊重而离职。”

Employers have been able to hold down pay by bringing in low-paid agency workers from the UK and EU to fill gaps. “They have had the ability to utilise this pool of what employers call flexible labour, but I call it exploitable labour, to cover these jobs for years,” says Jones. “But that has almost dried up now.”

雇主可以通过从英国和欧盟引进低薪中介员工来填补空缺，从而压低工资。琼斯表示：“多年来，他们一直有能力利用这些雇主称之为‘灵活劳动力’的资源，但我称之为‘可剥削劳动力’。但现在这种劳动力几乎已经枯竭了。”

Even the industry now accepts that wages have been too low for too long and working conditions need to improve to attract a more diverse range of people, including women. Natalie Chapman at Logistics UK says pay rates are increasing now, with agencies and job boards reporting that rates for new drivers are up 20% year on year, but admits there have been problems in the past. “To create resilience within the supply chain, pay is something that companies need to look at,” she says. “But one of the challenges is that our members work on margins of less than 1.5%.”

即使是这个行业现在也承认，工资太低已经太长时间了，工作条件需要改善，以吸引更多的人，包括女性。英国物流公司的娜塔莉·查普曼表示，现在的工资水平正在上升，中介和招聘网站报告称，新司机的工资水平同比上升了20%，但她承认过去也存在一些问题。她表示：“为了在供应链内创造弹性，薪酬是企业需要关注的问题。但我们面临的一个挑战是，我们的成员的利润率不到1.5%。”

Facilities for drivers in distribution centres and on the road are inadequate, with around 1,400 parking spaces needed for lorries. “Not all driving jobs require staying overnight but where they do we need to make sure drivers have access to shower and toilet facilities,” she adds.

配送中心和道路上为司机提供的设施不足，需要约1400个卡车停车位。她补充说：“并非所有的驾驶工作都需要通宵开车，但无论在哪里，我们都需要确保司机能有淋浴和厕所设施。”

Yet the supply chain crisis is not just about delays moving goods around the country. Labour shortages are blighting many other parts of the economy, where high numbers of non-UK staff worked long hours, often for low pay, before Brexit. This is also limiting the availability of products in shops.

然而，供应链危机不仅仅表现在全国货物运输延误上。劳动力短缺正在损害英国经济的许多其他领域——那些英国脱欧之前，大量非英国员工长时间工作，而且往往工资很低的领域。这也限制了商店里产品的供应。

These pressures are most keenly felt in the food and drink industry. A major new cross-industry report commissioned by trade organisations including the National Farmers unx and the Food and Drink Federation estimates there are in excess of 400,000 unfilled posts in the entire food and drink industry, from farms to meat processing plants to restaurant kitchens.

这些压力在食品和饮料行业最为强烈。由全国农民联盟和食品和饮料联合会等贸易组织委托进行的一项重大跨行业报告估计，从农场到肉类加工厂到餐厅厨房，整个食品和饮料行业有超过40万个岗位空缺。

This is causing pinch points throughout the food system. There are warnings that as many as 70,000 pigs are stranded on farms and some healthy animals may have to be culled because there are not enough workers in meat processing plants to prepare pork products.

这就造成了整个食品系统的堵点。有警告称，多达7万头猪被困在农场，一些健康的牲畜可能不得不被销毁，因为肉类加工厂没有足够的工人来准备猪肉产品。

Last week McDonald’s revealed it had run out of milkshakes and bottled drinks. This came after Nando’s was forced to close 50 restaurants due to a shortage of chicken. KFC pulled some menu items and dairy giant Arla cut back on milk deliveries, while publicans worried about running out of some beers over the holiday weekend. Delays have also hit medical supplies, with GPs ordered to ration vials used for blood tests.

上周，麦当劳透露其奶昔和瓶装饮料已经售罄。此前，由于鸡肉短缺，Nando 's烤鸡店被迫关闭了50家门店。肯德基撤下了一些菜单，乳制品巨头Arla减少了送牛奶的数量，而酒吧老板们则担心在假期的周末，啤酒会卖光。延误也影响了医疗供应，全科医生被要求定量配给用于验血的药瓶。

Some farms are having to dump crops. Barfoots, a major fresh produce company based in Sussex, has been forced to throw away between 500 and 600 tonnes of courgettes this season because it couldn’t find the workers to process them. “It’s soul-destroying for the growers,” says Julian Marks, the group’s managing director. “At the moment we’re just keeping our head above water. We are running on about 10% to 15% short [of staff] on most days.”

一些农场不得不把庄稼扔掉。英国苏塞克斯郡一家主要的新鲜农产品公司Barfoots，由于找不到加工工人，本季度被迫扔掉了500到600吨西葫芦。“这对种植者来说是灵魂痛击，”该组织的总经理朱利安·马克斯说。“目前，我们只是勉强维持生计。大多数时候，我们的（员工）缺口约为10%到15%。”

The company, which grows vegetables on 3,200 hectares (8,000 acres) in the UK, is not just short of seasonal agricultural workers. “At the moment we’re struggling to find tractor drivers, machine operators and quality controllers. We’re finding it exceptionally hard to find people,” says Marks. “There are 65 vacancies out of a total workforce of 450. We never run at that level.”

这家在英国种植了3200公顷（8000英亩）蔬菜的公司不仅仅缺少季节性农业工人。“目前，我们正在努力寻找拖拉机司机、机械操作员和质量控制人员。我们发现很难招到人，”马克斯说。“在450名员工中，有65个职位空缺。我们从未达到过那样的空缺水平。”

Many of the firm’s eastern European workers, he claims, have not returned because they don’t feel welcome in the UK, and high employment rates in the south-east are making it hard to recruit. “We are out there. We are looking. We are searching. But people are not coming forward. There are enough other options,” he says.

他声称，该公司的许多东欧员工没有返回英国，因为他们觉得在英国不受欢迎，而东南部的高雇佣率使招聘变得困难。“我们在那里。我们正在寻找。我们正在搜寻。但是人们并没有站出来。因为他们有足够多的其他岗位选择，”他表示。

The government has responded to the crisis by calling for employers to invest more in the domestic workforce. But Labour points out that the government’s failure to support apprenticeship training before and during the pandemic has created a skills gap. Last week, official figures showed the number of people starting an apprenticeship had fallen by 58,000 over the past two years, a drop of 19%.

政府通过呼吁雇主增加对国内劳动力的投资来应对危机。但是工党指出是政府在大流行之前和期间未能支持学徒培训，造成了技能缺口。上周，官方数据显示，在过去两年中，开始当学徒的人数减少了58000人，降幅为19%。

Shadow business secretary Ed Miliband says: “From car production under threat to fruit lying rotten in fields to warnings of empty shelves, businesses and unxs are telling the government these problems are only going to grow unless ministers get a grip.”

影子商务大臣埃德·米利班表示：“从面临威胁的汽车制造业到烂掉的水果，再到货架空空落落的警告，企业和工会都在告诉政府，除非大臣们控制住局面，否则这些问题只会加剧。”

Marks, who has been at Barfoots for 16 years, says he would like to offer higher pay but food suppliers have been squeezed by supermarkets. The lowest-paid are on around £10 an hour. “We have been pared to the bone by incessant price wars and the drive to always be the cheapest,” he says. “I would be absolutely delighted to pay more if I was able to pass that cost on up through the chain.”

在Barfoots工作了16年的马克斯表示，他愿意提供更高的薪酬，但食品供应商受到了超市的压榨。最低工资约为每小时10英镑。他说：“不断的价格战，以及总是追求最便宜的欲望，把我们的成本逼到了最低限度。如果我能将成本通过供应链传递下去，我绝对愿意多花点钱（在工人工资上）。”
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


While unxs, industry groups and the government agree wages need to rise and conditions improve, they disagree about the means. The TUC believes the crisis shows that government needs to empower unxs to negotiate on behalf of workers in the lowest-paid jobs. TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady says the crisis has not come out of thin air. “It’s the result of wages and conditions being driven down in sectors like food production for years,” she says. “If we want to build a more resilient labour market we must end this race to the bottom.”

虽然工会、产业团体和政府都同意提高工资和改善工作条件，但他们在手段上存在分歧。劳工联合会议认为，这场危机表明，政府需要授权工会代表最低工资工作的工人进行谈判。英国劳工联合会秘书长奥格雷迪说，这场危机并不是凭空产生的。她表示：“这是多年来食品生产等行业工资和工作条件下降的结果。如果我们想建立一个更具弹性的劳动力市场，我们就必须结束这场（恶性）竞争。”

There is still much unx support for proposals in the last Labour manifesto to allow for sector-wide collective bargaining, with employers legally obliged to enter into negotiations to set pay and conditions. O’Grady says that this happens in other countries. “Governments across the world, from America to New Zealand, have recognised that collective bargaining is the best way to level up pay and employment standards. It’s high time our government did too.”

工党上一份宣言中提出的允许全部门集体谈判的提议仍得到了很多工会的支持，根据法律规定，雇主有义务参与设定薪资和工作条件的谈判。奥格雷迪说，这种情况在其他国家也会发生。“从美国到新西兰，世界各国政府都认识到，集体谈判是提高工资和就业标准的最佳途径。我们的政府也该这么做了。”

The Department for Work and Pensions says companies should make employment more attractive through offering training, careers options and wage increases. “We’re working closely with industry to address sector challenges, which are similarly being faced by other countries around the world,” it says.

就业和养老金部表示，公司应该通过提供培训、职业选择和加薪，让就业变得更有吸引力。它表示：“我们正与工业界密切合作，以应对行业挑战，世界上其他国家也同样面临着这些挑战。”

Change cannot come soon enough for workers in the parts of the British economy where stagnant wages, grim conditions and long hours have sapped morale for decades. Hughes is preparing to drive out of the loading bay: he started at 1am and won’t finish until later in the afternoon when he pulls up to sleep. “I love this job but I hate the way drivers are treated,” he says. “We have to shit and eat in our cabs. Sometimes you have to piss in your trousers because you can’t pull over in time. That’s the real story. That’s the dark side to this job.”

对于英国部分经济领域的工人来说，变革来得再快也不够，在这些领域，停滞的工资、严酷的环境和长时间的工作已经削弱了工作激情几十年。休斯准备开车离开装货区：他从凌晨1点开始工作，直到下午晚些时候他上床睡觉前才干结束。“我喜欢这份工作，但我讨厌司机受到的待遇，”他表示。“我们得在车里拉屎，吃东西。有时候你不得不尿裤子，因为你无法及时靠边停车。这是真实的故事。这就是这份工作的阴暗面。”