Veolia waste management workers in Nottinghamshire are entering their second week on strike. GMB members fighting for a cost-of-living pay rise spoke to Jon Dale on the Worksop and Mansfield picket lines.
Workers on the Mansfield picking belt are only paid the minimum wage – less than Veolia workers on the same job in neighbouring counties. Drivers on a two-year pay deal got 3% last year and just 3% this April. Only managers, office and weighbridge staff received one-off £500 cost-of-living payments.
As well as low pay, workers have had enough of bullying management, micro-managing everything from toilet breaks to PPE. ‘99p gloves’ don’t give protection from needles hidden in rubbish and are expected to last a week, even if soiled with faeces.
The dead animals bin costs Veolia money to dispose of, so is only emptied every few months. In summer heat, gas builds up inside, risking exploding disgusting contents over anyone opening it.
Labour-run district councils should stop their bin lorries and street cleaning trucks using these sites during the strike. Bassetlaw council officers have told their drivers they can cross the picket, which Labour councillors should stop. Some drivers have refused to cross picket lines.
Non-union and agency drivers need convincing that unions will fight for their jobs and pay too. Veolia has hired extra agency workers to work on the picking belt in place of strikers.
Nottinghamshire County Council gave French giant corporation Veolia a 26-year Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract in 2006, when Labour ran the council. It’s now Tory controlled.
Veolia can well afford to pay the workers’ full demands. Its half-year profits are up 18.7% to €662 million. PFI should be abolished and all outsourced contracts taken back under council control, with good wages and working conditions.
