by Mark Angelides



In yet another sign of impending Statism/Corporatism, businesses are appealing to national governments to relax immigration rules in an effort to increase their profits. Corporations don’t have children who need a school place, they don’t have elderly relatives waiting for a hospital bed; they don’t live in communities that are slowly being segregated and destroyed. They are concerned with profits, and as such care not for the adverse effects of mass immigration.

Prêt a Manger is a designer sandwich shop that is a worldwide chain that made £676 million in 2015, and profits were up 14.5% to £84 million. This is a fast expanding company with branches in the UK, China, Hong Kong and all over. But are they happy? Apparently not.

According to Pret’s HR manager, they are saying that they will find it difficult to fill jobs after Brexit, so they would like a loosening of laws to allow more migrant workers. At present, only 1 in 50 applicants at UK branches are actually from Britain. And that 65% of their workforce are EU nationals.

So why are Brits not applying for these “amazing” jobs? Could it be that even in the UK’s uber-expensive capital, London, workers can earn £8.50 an hour (about $10)? Could it be that they don’t even earn this pitiful wage until they have completed 12 weeks of training in how to make a sandwich?

According to spokespeople in both business and government, it is largely because of the “British Attitude” to work, and that 18 year-olds don’t “consider it a success” to be working at a sandwich shop. So not the £8.50 an hour then?

This disgraceful attitude to British workers fails to reflect reality. Pret a Manger want the cheapest possible workers with the lowest possible expectations. To live in London in a small single bed apartment is around £650-£750 per month (not a great area) which the wage offered would take 50% of which to pay. Pret want workers that live 3 or 4 to an apartment who have no investment in their community. The workers cannot afford to become a proper part of their communities, these are transient job. No families, no marriage, no new apartment with the partner…work, work, leave, hire, work, work, leave, hire ad infinitum. The companies don’t care about the communities; they just want an unending supply of cheap, replaceable labor.



And this is not just happening in the UK. The US government is also facing pressure from companies to allow almost unrestricted immigration in an effort to keep their work mills going with cheap, replaceable labor. Part of this drive is actually the minimum wage debate; but it will also become the maximum wage on which corporations can just replace any workers who want more. If companies want to keep and hire workers, then they need to offer wages that allow the worker to gain a stake in their community. They need to begin respecting the cohesion of towns and cities. They need to start understanding that people want to build families and having an investment in the future.

But they won’t. Because it’s easier to petition government for more cheap workers.