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‘There are no deliveries because of Brexit,’ supermarket worker reveals

An Italian woman working for a big British supermarket said for most of the week there are no deliveries and she had not seen anything like this in 12 years.

The woman, who works in the London area, said a friend who works for another supermarket is also missing deliveries.

She said this means her shifts are being cancelled and she is losing work hours.

‘It’s Brexit, not the pandemic’

She told The London Economic: “The truth is, I don’t know what is going on, we are getting a delivery and then we are not getting any deliveries for three-four days. The staff is staying home. I am so upset.

“The deliveries shortage is because of Brexit. I have been here 12 years and I have never seen this happening. Deliveries came before Brexit. During the pandemic, it was never this bad before.”

She added: “It’s not because of the pandemic because it has always worked last year.

“I have worked throughout the pandemic, I have never stopped when people started panic buying, we had some problems but because people bought everything, not because we didn’t have anything to sell like now.

“We get what we vote for. The government now needs to tell the country, the deal doesn’t work.”

EU

She said many lorry drivers who were transporting supermarket products have left the UK because of Brexit, and deliveries and imports have been difficult.

“I think what I am seeing now is when the deliveries come it’s the same things, milk, cheese, Cadbury chocolate, things you know are made here. I don’t think importing is working, it makes me worried to see products missing as I don’t know when it’s coming back to normal. There are too many empty shelves.

“We don’t see EU products anymore, there are too many missing products like fresh food, which we didn’t see before. Things like toiletries, we see they write in Arabic or Hindi [on the labels], I think they are replacing products.

“Some people are asking why we are not having more of a certain product. I prefer buying from Aldi or Lidl because you know where it comes from, and they are from the EU, I don’t buy chicken from my work because I don’t know where it’s coming from. I prefer to stay with EU supermarkets.”

The woman wanted to stay anonymous because she fears she could lose her job by speaking out.

She said: “I am an immigrant in this country, the first to go are the immigrants.

“Too many native British people voted for Brexit and shoppers supported Brexit as well, I fear they will say, we will no longer hire people from the EU.”

Related: Outrage as Shapps tackles EU lorry drivers shortage – by prolonging hours

UK hospitality sector struggles for workers after EU citizens ‘went back home’

Andra Maciuca

Andra is a multilingual, award-winning NQJ senior journalist and the UK’s first Romanian representing co-nationals in Britain and reporting on EU citizens for national news. She is interested in UK, EU and Eastern European affairs, EU citizens in the UK, British citizens in the EU, environmental reporting, ethical consumerism and corporate social responsibility. She has contributed articles to VICE, Ethical Consumer and The New European and likes writing poetry, singing, songwriting and playing instruments. She studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield and has a Masters in International Business and Management from the University of Manchester. Follow her on:

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