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Germany

Poland's Seasonal Workers Face Grim Conditions In Germany

The Polish-German border
The Polish-German border
Anna Gmiterek-Zabłocka
At an employement agency in southeastern Poland, notices offer a variety of job opportunities abroad. One particular post advertising agricultural work in Germany looks, at first glance, to be a good offer. The reality is very different.
To be able to send people to work abroad, Polish employement agencies need to be signed into a Provincial Job Center register. Thousands of workers every year go through such agencies to places like Germany, France, U.S., Belgium and Sweden. By law, if something goes wrong, an employee has the right to file a complaint to this Job Center, though that rarely happens. This is the story of one such complaint.
This job, like all physical labor, is hard. But the employees were aware of that before signing up. The problem here is that nobody from the employment agency back in Poland said what the living conditions would be like.
The Polish workers live in containers made of sheet tin without a toilet and running water. Inside of the cramped space, there are two bunk beds. To take a shower, people have to walk to another building located far from the containers. There are no shower curtains so everyone takes a shower together. Embarrasing for some, all simply had to get used to it since there was no other choice. Then there was the cold inside the containers, filled with holes in the tin “walls.”
Furthermore, the employees are not called by their names but with numbers like in concentration camps. This kind of treatment is certainly inhumane.
According to the report, when the employees first traveled to Germany and arrived at the work site at 6 a.m., they were greeted by a very tense atmosphere from those overseeing the job. They had to wait outside for four hours before someone came to pick them up. The drivers, who were Turkish, then started the selection, pointing out who was going to work on the factory floor and who were the “lucky” ones to work in the field. They took all the people’s identification cards, and gave them back only just before they left to return to Poland.
Working conditions were terrible. The employees worked for more than 12 hours a day with one short break in the middle. They were told to work faster and faster. Being late or having a day off was banned. Whoever was indeed lucky to be working on the factory floor was continuously threatened to be sent to work in the field if they didn't work harder. The Turkish foremen cursed at the workers, called them idiots, tossed carrots at them, and tugged at their sleeves. If their employers were not pleased, they refused to pay. The hourly salary was 4.50 euros, but chopping leeks was paid in volume - one euro per box. The stress was enormous.
The Polish agency responsible for sending workers to this German site has since changed its name, but is still sending people to work. When contacted by a reporter posing as a job applicant seeking work in Germany, the agency said it was impossible because there were currently too many job applications. Moreover, the Polish workers no longer work in the factory, but only in the field. The Provincial Job Center verified this employment agency and the German work site, but for now has not found grounds to punish them.

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Green

Forest Networks? Revisiting The Science Of Trees And Funghi "Reaching Out"

A compelling story about how forest fungal networks communicate has garnered much public interest. Is any of it true?

Thomas Brail films the roots of a cut tree with his smartphone.

Arborist and conservationist Thomas Brail at a clearcutting near his hometown of Mazamet in the Tarn, France.

Melanie Jones, Jason Hoeksema, & Justine Karst

Over the past few years, a fascinating narrative about forests and fungi has captured the public imagination. It holds that the roots of neighboring trees can be connected by fungal filaments, forming massive underground networks that can span entire forests — a so-called wood-wide web. Through this web, the story goes, trees share carbon, water, and other nutrients, and even send chemical warnings of dangers such as insect attacks. The narrative — recounted in books, podcasts, TV series, documentaries, and news articles — has prompted some experts to rethink not only forest management but the relationships between self-interest and altruism in human society.

But is any of it true?

The three of us have studied forest fungi for our whole careers, and even we were surprised by some of the more extraordinary claims surfacing in the media about the wood-wide web. Thinking we had missed something, we thoroughly reviewed 26 field studies, including several of our own, that looked at the role fungal networks play in resource transfer in forests. What we found shows how easily confirmation bias, unchecked claims, and credulous news reporting can, over time, distort research findings beyond recognition. It should serve as a cautionary tale for scientists and journalists alike.

First, let’s be clear: Fungi do grow inside and on tree roots, forming a symbiosis called a mycorrhiza, or fungus-root. Mycorrhizae are essential for the normal growth of trees. Among other things, the fungi can take up from the soil, and transfer to the tree, nutrients that roots could not otherwise access. In return, fungi receive from the roots sugars they need to grow.

As fungal filaments spread out through forest soil, they will often, at least temporarily, physically connect the roots of two neighboring trees. The resulting system of interconnected tree roots is called a common mycorrhizal network, or CMN.

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