Alistair Tice, Sheffield Socialist Party
Now into their eighth month of indefinite strike action, Unite members at Sheffield Veolia Lumley Street bin depot remain solid, fighting to gain recognition for their trade union of choice.
They have renewed their strike mandate three times, the last ballot recording a 96% ‘yes’ vote. It is this determination, combined with an international campaign by Unite against the French multinational company, that has made Veolia desperate. Questions have been raised in the French and Irish parliaments, French unions have protested at Veolia’s Paris headquarters, and the global CEO was confronted in the US.
Now, after a Unite Community campaign on a Sheffield council estate led to over 120 residents putting supportive stickers on their bins, Veolia has issued a legal ‘cease and desist’ threat against the union for damaging council property! Desperate indeed.
On 14 February, Veolia finally agreed to roundtable talks with the GMB union (currently the only recognised union at the depot) and Unite, initiated by the Labour council leader. But the GMB didn’t turn up, saying it will only discuss a so-called ‘courtesy agreement’ but not Unite recognition, even though there is a smaller Veolia depot in Sheffield that does have joint union recognition.
Veolia has all along accused Unite strikers of intimidating those still working. Well, the strikers have exposed that lie by collecting 136 signatures of Lumley Street workers, the overwhelming majority, stating that they “have no objection to Unite being formally recognised”.
Unite reports that Veolia made £11.7 million in profit from Sheffield in 2023. The Labour council’s waste management contract is outsourced to Veolia for 37 years! Sheffield City Council should bin Veolia and take the waste contract back in-house.
