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From The Socialist newspaper, 29 October 2014
Sheffield recycling workers to start indefinite action
Thirty Sheffield recycling workers at The Green Company continued their dispute for premium pay, welfare facilities and against bullying management with strike action on 25 and 26 October, and have given notice of an indefinite strike from Wednesday 29 November.
GMB union shop steward Jim Rodgers spoke at a Sheffield Socialist Party meeting.
"After our last strike (against jobs and pay cuts two years ago), we forced them to get rid of the bad managers. A new better senior management team (SMT) was brought in.
We got the living wage in April. We had more work so could open the sites an extra hour a day. The future was looking good.
Then about ten weeks ago, I rang to speak to one of the SMT only to be told one was on leave (really suspended), one had resigned, and the other on sick!
'Who am I speaking to then?'
'I'm Martine Laffan-Butler, the boss of the charity'! That was the first I'd heard of her.
Since then, we've found out that over the last four months it's alleged that she has skimmed £60,000 off the contract (to run Sheffield recycling sites, subcontracted from Veolia the private company that run the council's waste management services).
The former finance director who blew the whistle has been suspended and the other two SMT left.
So all this has been going on while we've been told that there's not enough money for premium rates for weekends and overtime or for welfare facilities on two of the five sites.
That's why we are on strike and I'd like to thank you all for your support on the picket lines, blocking lorries.
We want to be taken back in-house or for us workers to run it as a cooperative. If things aren't sorted then we are going all-out from Wednesday."
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In The Socialist 29 October 2014:
Socialist Party news and analysis
Millions robbed by greedy bosses
Capitalism - 'the new mediocre'
Record numbers of workers suffering poverty pay
Socialist history
Lessons from history: 1917 Revolution in Russia
Australia: The sacking of a government
International socialist news and analysis
Building a political alternative in Seattle
Socialist Party workplace news
Support FBU pension strikes: Save our fire service
St Mungo's Broadway workers discuss next action
Sheffield recycling workers to start indefinite action
Ritzy workers threatened with redundancy
Fighting for better pay for workers
Wales colleges: Vote 'yes' in pay strike consultation
NASUWT members strike at Swinton High School
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Leicester holds historic People's Budget talks
Southwark Labour demolishes homes
Readers' comments and reviews
Film review: On the streets of Belfast in 1971
Obituary
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