Nick Hart, Birmingham Socialist Party
Birmingham City Council’s latest threat to make striking bin workers redundant hasn’t come from a position of strength. Agency bin crews have begun being disrupted again by activists using creative tactics to get around the use of a court injunction by the Labour council and West Midlands Police to stop Unite members blocking lorries.
The lengths the council was willing to go to try to break the strike was shown when an agency driver was filmed mounting the kerb and driving at pedestrians, and the very next day was seen going out on his rounds again as if nothing had happened!
Announcing the ‘fire and rehire’ plans to the press before bin workers themselves got to hear of it, the council implied that it was breaking off negotiations. But council management have been dodging talks with Unite for several weeks now, and have refused to involve either council leader John Cotton or the government-appointed commissioners in them at any point since the strike began in January.
Support for the bin workers remains high among the public and the workers’ movement. Now is the time to turn this into action. The mega-picket on Friday 25 July initiated by Strike Map and supported by 15 unions and counting, as well as a growing number of organisations, including the National Shop Stewards Network, is an opportunity to start a pattern of union members and other activists – especially other union members in Birmingham City Council – regularly attending bin depots and other key sites, including scab firm Tom White in Coventry and the local incinerator.
A national Saturday demonstration against council cuts and in support of the strike in Birmingham could cut across the council’s attempts to intimidate bin workers and their families by issuing letters threatening redundancy, and would put the pressure back on the Labour councillors, the Tory-appointed commissioners, and their paymasters in Starmer’s Labour government.
As a result of its actions around the strike and years of cuts, only 5% of Birmingham residents say they plan to vote Labour in next year’s council elections. In a panic move, Labour is now reported to have blocked 14 councillors who have been mildly critical of the leadership from standing for re-election, in the hope of replacing them with candidates who can be relied on to vote through further cuts packages.
We need councillors who can be relied on to vote against cuts – the recent moves by Unite to discuss its relationship with Labour is a welcome step to making this happen.
Mega-picket: 6am Friday 25 July
- Atlas depot B11 2AS
- Lifford Lane depot B30 3JJ
- Perry Bar depot B42 2TU
- Ryton site (Coventry) CV8 3EJ
- Veolia incinerator B11 2BA
- Unite should call a national Saturday demonstration in Birmingham
