Birmingham council worker
Bin workers in Birmingham continue their courageous strike, now into its seventh week of all-out action, against attacks which would slash the pay of a whole section of the workforce.
The Labour-led council had announced a state of emergency under the guise of public health. It is now also using Tory anti-trade union laws to use police and now army planners to try and undermine the strike.
If the council really did care about public health, it wouldn’t be cutting the safety-critical role of the bin workers. It wouldn’t be implementing cuts that exacerbate poverty and inequality: cutting day care centres and libraries, increasing social isolation; selling of flats when tens of thousands are on the council housing waiting list. Councils across the country are making cuts like these and raising taxes, making working-class people pay the price with continued austerity.
In short, the Labour council, backed to the hilt by the Labour government, is more interested in finding another stick to beat the striking bin workers with than it is in public health.
Despite the council’s attempts to demonise the bin workers in the press, public support for the strike remains high. When Socialist Party members are out campaigning around the city in support of the strike, the response is overwhelmingly positive. While an £8,000 pay cut might be peanuts for council commissioners, ordinary people in Birmingham know it needs to be fought.
There is also significant support for the strike within the council workforce. My division of over 100 council workers had a meeting with management where we were asked: ‘What can the council do to make employees feel valued?’ The response was clear: ‘Stop the cuts and pay the bin workers!’
All the council trade unions have an important role to play in mobilising support in solidarity with the bin workers. The wider trade union movement too. Solidarity mobilisations to bin-worker picket lines and rallies from other trade unions – starting with the council unions – would not only be a massive boost to the strike, but could mark the beginnings of a city-wide movement to win the funding Birmingham needs from central government to halt and reverse these austerity attacks, including the 21% council tax rise for Birmingham residents.
The Socialist Party is building support for the West Midlands Shop Stewards Network meeting on 26 April, called to discuss how to build solidarity with the bin strike and fight all the cuts at Birmingham council.
This dispute is of critical importance to all council workers. We know that if the council thinks it can beat the most militant and organised section of the workforce, it will come for the rest of us too!
If Labour councils attack workers, they can’t be trusted to stand up for our interests. They need to be challenged at the ballot box. Around the country, over 100 Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidates are standing against them in the 1 May local elections.
Stand with striking bin workers
‘How can we build a citywide movement to defeat the cuts?’
- Saturday 26 April, 12 noon
- Comfort Inn, Station Street,
- Birmingham City Centre, B5 4DY
Public meeting hosted by West Midlands National Shop Stewards Network
