Rally for the Brum bin workers
20 September, 9:30am assemble for 10 start. Unite the Union offices, Birmingham B7 4EH
Unite the Union has called a national demo in support of the Birmingham bin strikers on Saturday 20 September. Let’s make that the biggest demo possible of working-class solidarity.
Danny Taylor, Birmingham bin workers Unite rep, spoke at the National Shop Stewards Network rally at the TUC on 7 September
“Brutal attacks are being inflicted on our members in the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. Shockingly, these attacks are coming from a Labour council.
Our fight began last August when Birmingham City Council (BCC) scrapped the Grade-3 safety critical role, a loss of up to £6-8,000 per person. And now they’ve gone further, trying to remove the HGV driver team-leader role through ‘fire and rehire’, again a loss of up to £8,000 a year.
Government changes to the Employment Rights Bill have handed ‘bankrupt’ councils the right to fire and rehire at will. If they get away with it in Birmingham, councils up and down the country will copy it.
Once again it’s frontline workers being made to pay for failures at the top.
We know whose side Labour is on
We almost reached a deal but it was blocked by government commissioner Max Caller, who was on £1,200 a day, acting under Labour deputy prime minister Angela Rayner. Let’s not forget, Angela Rayner came to Birmingham and didn’t visit a single picket line – instead she went to congratulate the scab workforce on a job well done.
But Max Caller has gone. Sharon Graham is now in talks with the new commissioner and the government – that’s happened because we stood strong.
The so-called options being given to members are a sham. They’re forcing ‘voluntary’ redundancies, pushing workers into life-changing decisions without the full facts.
It’s a stitch-up. BCC doesn’t want us back. They’ve built a service propped up by agency labour; workers with no rights, no security; a workforce supplied by an agency whose earnings from BCC have doubled to £8 million.
What success?
The council boasts about its ‘successful’ collections. But they cost more money and are unsafe. Their own social media shows agency staff in shorts, T-shirts and trainers – no hi-vis, no PPE.
26,000 tonnes of waste were piled high on our streets in the summer. Recycling rates have collapsed to just 15%. There have been no recycling collections at all, and no garden collections, forcing £2 million to be paid in refunds to residents. Millions have been lost from trade waste contracts. And yet another council tax rise is looming for ordinary people. That is not ‘success’.
We escalated to all-out strike in March and for six months we’ve held strong. In that time, the council has thrown everything at us, including court injunctions, police intimidation on the picket lines, and smears in the press.
But members have not been broken. We’ve just reballoted, with a 72% turnout and a 99.5% ‘yes’ vote to continue action.
That’s not just a mandate, that’s a roar of defiance. Support from the union, other unions and organisations like the NSSN – this is the solidarity that BCC fears.”
The Socialist Party says:
- The Labour council and government want to crush this strike. But Angela Rayner’s resignation is just the latest sign of a government in crisis. The whole union movement must now come to Unite’s aid with support and solidarity to win this dispute
- Unite conference voted to open up a discussion about the union’s relationship with Labour. Since then, hundreds of members have met to campaign for Unite to play a central role in building a new workers’ party. Pass the motion found at the QR code in your Unite branch for a special policy and rules conference
