Tom Baldwin, South West Socialist Party
Refuse workers in South Gloucestershire began their first week of strike action over pay on 12 June. Their counterparts in Bristol and North Somerset are also balloting for action.
Suez, the private company that is contracted to handle waste in South Gloucestershire, made a profit of over £80 million in 2021 and yet they are handing their workers a real-terms pay cut. Unite members overwhelmingly rejected the deal and have announced three weeks of strikes.
Picket lines at two sites both numbered around 50 workers, a large majority of those out on strike. Unite rep Tom Jones said: “We’re striking for fair pay. We’re looking for 10%, we know the company’s got a lot more money than that.” The dispute had made workers determined to stand their ground, with new members joining on the first day of the strike. Tom himself had only become a union rep this year, inspired by the strikes of other workers. He said: “We’re all the same, we’re all workers and we all deserve a rise. Collective action is how we’re going to win it and that’s what I’m trying to build here.”
Later in the day we were given an example of that spirit of solidarity as refuse workers joined social workers at a rally. Adult social workers in Unison were taking their sixth day of strike action after South Gloucestershire council paid a £3,000 retention bonus to child social workers but left them with nothing.
The rally at the Civic Centre in Kingswood was planned to coincide with a meeting of the new council cabinet. However, Unison branch secretary (and Socialist Party member) Dan Smart told the crowd that the cabinet had pushed their meeting back and had ignored the invitation from the two unions to come down and speak to them. For those hoping the new Lib Dem and Labour administration would mark a clear change of direction after years of Tory rule, this was an inauspicious start.
It was a strong start to the strike action though and a determined display of union power. The ball is now in the court of the council and the employer to settle the disputes and avoid a ‘stinky summer’.
