Sheffield bin workers' strike - "about more than just pay"

Alistair Tice

Sheffield bin workers are on a one-day strike today, 5 October, fighting for a better pay rise. Veolia, who have a 35 year contract to run Sheffield council's waste management services, has only offered a 3% rise over the next two years. GMB union members had voted 70% for strike action.

There had been a few rumblings of discontent about the strike so a gate meeting was held at 6am. After a strong appeal by the GMB officer Pete Davies for workers to stick together, no-one wanted to suspend the strike. Around 100 strikers then picketed outside the Lumley Street depot.

Sheffield Veolia strike, 5.10.16, photo by A Tice (Click to enlarge)

GMB members had taken a one-day strike in April this year against management bullying and 'spy in the cab' technology, their first strike for 17 years.

Paul told me:

"That strike made me feel empowered. Since then they've stopped pulling people into the office and the cab cameras are turned off. We need to get back some of that pre-1980s workers' dignity. I don't know if we'll win a better pay rise but if our strike helps bankrupt Veolia so the council has to take us back in-house, then it will be worth it. It can't be morally justified for a big corporation like Veolia to be getting council taxpayers' money when all they're interested in is profit, not putting money back into the city."

Bins, photo by Ivor Ibrahamsen (Creative Commons) (Click to enlarge)

Mick said:

"It's about more than pay. Veolia want us to start earlier, work longer. They're bringing in more and more agency workers (many who were used to scab on the strike). We want the council to take them back in-house but this Labour council is like a Conservative one with all the cuts and privatisation."

Pete Davies said that this wouldn't be the last strike and the union may re-ballot to widen the demands of the dispute and sections involved.

Update on 10.10.16:

A Veolia Unite rep in Haringey, London, tipped off the GMB in Sheffield that a letter was posted on their noticeboard and had been sent to a number of Veolia regions asking for drivers and loaders to come to Sheffield at the weekend to clear up the dropped bins not collected due to the strike, including offering overnight hotel accommodation!
This angered the Sheffield bin workers so much that they've called a second strike for Monday 17th October.

This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 5 October 2016 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.

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