Birmingham bin strike - Photo: NSSN

Rubbish has built up in the streets across Birmingham as refuse collectors escalate their actions, with the commissioner-led Birmingham City Council and its private agency, Job & Talent, deliberately replacing permanent workers with temporary agency staff in an attempt to break strikes.

Almost 400 workers have been striking since January with intermittent walkouts. The workers escalated their action into an indefinite strike on March 11, over the council's scrapping of the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) role, causing pay cuts of up to £8,000 to 150 workers. Birmingham City Council declared a "major incident" on March 31 to in response to the mountains of uncollected waste, but this has in no way addressed the concerns of the bin workers. The health risk to the public is escalating and fuelling general public discontent. The effects of the action underscore the necessity for investment in such basic services, without which there is simply chaos.

On March 31, Unite the union issued a statement in which it said that Birmingham council is prepared to throw much more cash down the drain with its disgraceful strike-breaking major incident plans than it would cost to resolve the dispute. This is an attempt to crush any opposition to attacks on jobs, pay and conditions that are set to extend to other workers across the council.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Birmingham council could easily resolve this dispute but instead it seems hellbent on imposing its plan of demotions and pay cuts at all costs. If that involves spending far more than it would cost to resolve the strike fairly, they don't seem to care. We can only conclude that this massive pay cut for hundreds of refuse workers is only the start and this is really about stamping out any future opposition to its plans to unleash austerity 2.0 on Birmingham. I urge Birmingham council to rethink this disastrous strategy and to find a way forward that doesn't involve workers and communities having to pay for politicians' mistakes. Unite will never accept attacks on our members and we will continue to defend Birmingham's refuse workforce to the hilt."

Unite points out that the council is already spending vast amounts extra on expensive agency worker fees within the waste service. Pay and conditions for refuse workers, most earning little more than the minimum wage, had already been cut before the current dispute, including £1,000 in shift pay. Around 150 workers are directly impacted with pay cuts of up to £8,000 by the removal of the WRCO role, which also ends fair pay progression for hundreds of others. Last week, the council confirmed that pay for HGV lorry drivers in the waste service is also at risk of being cut. Throughout the dispute, the council has repeatedly smeared the behaviour of workers on peaceful picket lines and given artificially low figures about the number of workers who are impacted.

Unite said that it believes the government is also being misled by the council and the commissioners regarding the dispute, following a statement on the major incident announcement by minister of state for local government, Jim McMahon, in parliament on March 31. This is reflected by the fact that the council announced its major incident plans, which it had not informed Unite about, while it was in official negotiations with the union.

The dispute has underlined that people need control over their livelihoods and living conditions. The fight of the bin workers for their claims and their rights is also directed towards this end. Enough is Enough! Stand with the striking bin workers!

(National Shop Stewards Network; Unite)

Note
For previous coverage, see: https://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wwie-25/ww25-07/ww25-07-06.htm

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