‘The Labour council weren’t expecting this’
Clive Walder, Birmingham Socialist Party
Pressure from strike action, and the determination of bin workers to defend their pay grading, has forced Birmingham Labour council to the negotiating table. Their strike action has been stepped up from one day a week to three.
There was a large and noisy lobby of bin workers on 12 February. The presence of angry striking workers led the council to relocate the talks to a nearby hotel!
Bin workers don’t buy the lies peddled by the council to justify this savage attack on their living standards, which could see some workers lose £8,000 a year. One striker said: “You do the maths. Seven commissioners, taking a grand a day each, say they can’t keep us on our existing pay!” It would only take 50 days of commissioners’ pay to settle this dispute.
The council originally thought that they could divide council workers against each other, or get rid of the dispute with a small one-off payment. As one striker said: “The council weren’t expecting this.”
Failure to beat the strikers into submission has led to the council recruiting agency street cleaners and then transferring them to refuse collection. Strikers say this may be against employment law.
Unite lead officer Onay Kasab gave a fighting speech, offering the full support of the union. He said that there is plenty of money hoarded by the rich and big business that could properly fund council workers’ pay.
Yet Birmingham Labour council is preparing to agree a further £148 million in cuts to services, alongside a 7.49% increase in council tax.
The council was roundly condemned for refusing to ask Starmer’s Labour government for enough money. They hid behind the Tories for the last 14 years and now won’t ask their own government for more money.
The workers were particularly outraged when the news broke that councillors have voted for a 5.7% increase in their own allowances.
Members have voted to reject a new offer from the council and will now ballot over escalating the strike action.
A striker said: “This country ain’t for the working class anymore”. Although there are no elections in Birmingham this year, Socialist Party members are discussing with others about calling a meeting of all those who want to fight for a no-cuts budget, in preparation for the 2026 elections.
Birmingham council is not alone: Labour councils up and down the country are forcing through massive cuts rather than demanding the funds from Starmer. Imagine the irresistible force that could be built if councils pledged to make no more cuts and stood together, mobilising a big campaign alongside them.
Birmingham bin workers show the way forward: we need workers’ action and we need a fight for no-cuts needs budgets. That includes standing anti-austerity and socialist candidates in council elections. Build a mass campaign – and fight for our own working-class political voice!
