By Paul Callanan, Unite Greenwich 2050 Branch, Assistant Branch Secretary (personal capacity)

Refuse workers in Birmingham are entering their fifth week of strike action. There seems to be no end in sight to the dispute, with Unite members overwhelmingly rejecting a new offer on 14 April.

The workers are fighting against a proposal to delete the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer role, which will result in a pay cut of up to £8000 for around 170 workers. As their union Unite points out, this will leave most collection workers and drivers earning just above the minimum wage for a physically demanding job.

Council cuts

The City Council claims this cut is necessary due to the council being loaded with debts totalling £2.9 billion. This has resulted in part from an equal pay claim being brought against the council by low-paid women cleaners. They say that this attack on the conditions of the mostly, though not entirely, male workforce in the bin service is the only way to ensure the council is not vulnerable to further legal claims.

In 2023, the council issued a 114-notice declaring itself bankrupt. Since then, it has effectively been controlled by six commissioners, and not the elected council leadership.

In any event, when councils fall into financial difficulties, it is right that our movement rejects the notion that the books should be balanced on the backs of ordinary working-class people already suffering under the impact of austerity and a cost of living crisis.

But making workers’ pay is exactly what the Labour council and the Labour government are trying to do. In fact, so desperate are they to enforce these pay cuts they have been employing the tactics of the worst strike-breaking bosses. This has included bringing bin crews from other local authorities and even suggesting that firefighters or soldiers can be brought in to clear the mess.

Government intervention

With negotiations with the council at an impasse, there have been growing calls from Unite for the government to step in. They could wipe or restructure the debt to allow the council to pay the bin workers.

Instead, all we have heard is leading government figures imploring the workers to take a deal. Angela Rayner, herself a former local government trade unionist, has toured the city visiting depots to speak to scab bin crews. She has not gone to visit the picket line or speak to any of the workers on strike.

Unfortunately, we have also seen anti-union tactics employed against the strike by some within Unite itself. A recent BBC article claimed that a deal could have been made with the bin workers as long ago as January but was held up by national figures for whom “disruption, disputes and revolution are the priority”. Incredibly, this quote came from unnamed sources from within the union’s West Midlands regional office, which is controlled by the misnamed United Left. This is a grouping linked to former General Secretary Len McCluskey, which is waging a campaign to regain control of the union.

Rather than support workers taking action, they have chosen to make the dispute a political football as they attempt to prevent a long-awaited report into corruption seeing the light of day. These methods will fool nobody. Workers have already voted with their feet and the strike remains solid.

The Birmingham bin dispute has become a key battle for the whole of our movement. A defeat for the union in Birmingham will give the green light to council bosses across the country as they attempt to unleash austerity 2.0. Conversely, a victory will show the way for all workers looking to fight back against attacks on jobs, pay and conditions.

What we say

• The trade union movement must build a campaign of solidarity with the strike across the country. This should include organising workers to refuse to act as strikebreakers, as the Fire Brigades Union recently has.
• Build the left within Unite. We need to be organised against the attempts of pro-Labour, right-wing elements within the movement to undermine the strike.
• The movement should campaign for the Labour government to either cancel or restructure the council’s debt in order to pay the bin workers. This should be broadened out to other councils in similar positions.
• Rather than attacking workers, councils should set no-cuts needs budgets, using borrowing powers alongside building a mass campaign with unions and communities to demand back money lost by local government as a result of austerity.
• Build a new party of the left. There should be no trade union support or funding for a party that has attacked workers in the way Birmingham Labour and the Labour government have. We need a party that supports workers in struggle.