Robert Charlesworth, Unite Community Cumbria and Socialist Party
Allerdale refuse workers, members of Unite the Union, have won pay rises of 8.3% and 13.6%, seven hours off the working week, double pay for working bank holidays, and other improvements. They fought with the backing of their community, and solidarity from other unions. The lesson for other workers in Cumberland is clear: join a union, get active, and you can improve your lives too.
Allerdale Waste Services (AWS) was created by the district council and employs the workers on worse pay and conditions than the local government national standard. Shamefully, it is being maintained by the Labour-controlled Cumberland County Council, which owns AWS 100%.
The councillors have shown open hostility to the workers’ unions and tried, unsuccessfully, to turn the community against them. AWS claimed in the local press that Unite had “no intention of coming to an agreement to bring the industrial action to a close”.
Unite is Labour’s biggest donor nationally, but these councillors have treated the bin workers as their enemy. They readily seized on a Tory law change to recruit agency staff as strike breakers against their own workforce.
When this practice was declared illegal, the council tried to get round the High Court ruling by hiring strike breakers on fixed-term contracts.
The Labour county councillors are seen as anti-worker, anti-union strike breakers. If any councillor feels aggrieved by this criticism, then let them finally speak out openly against their council leadership. On whose side did the Labour parliamentary candidates in Cumberland stand – that of the workers or the council? They have allowed a Tory MP to hypocritically pose as a friend of workers.
Unite rejects the recent watering down of Labour’s promises on workers’ rights. It also demands that Labour councils pass no-cuts budgets instead of just dumping Tory cuts onto the working class.
The Unite Community Cumbria branch calls on the council to bring AWS services and workforce in-house on nationally agreed pay and conditions. They should guarantee never to use Tory strikebreaking laws again.
Socialist Party members argue that if councillors are not prepared to make a stand, trade unionists should support candidates that are.
