The demand for labourers to pick the 2012 harvest has plummeted by 25% due to the invasion of mechanical harvesters which halve the cost of bringing in the grapes.
In these hard times, a lot of people are looking for work: many are unemployed or students looking to finance their studies. The invasion of the machines has dramatically reduced the demand for labour, down by 20-30% on last year according to union calculations, or about 6-7,000 workers - half the number of only a few years ago.
Over the years the pickers have become more professional, but with few exceptions not even qualified workers have a guarantee of work hand picking vineyards which have decreased in area in barely three years from over 10,000 hectares to around 6,500 in production this year.
Mechanisation of the harvest now counts for more than half of the vineyards. It costs about half the wages of pickers, and does the job twice as quickly, which helps the strained finances of the producers, one of whom is rumoured to be intending to harvest entirely by machine.
Other wine producing areas both in Spain and abroad are also offering less work, and there are more people looking for it. Wage increases in Jerez can only be tiny even though outside the Jerez DO they can be higher, and the unions are planning possible action to protest the lack of negotiation.
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