The bin strike in Birmingham looks as though it has ended in a victory for the workers.
By Paul Callanan, Greenwich Unite Assistant Secretary (personal capacity)
For the past 15 months, bin workers in the city have been on strike against a threatened £8,000 per year pay cut. The solidarity and resolve those workers have shown seems to have worked.
Unite this week received an improved offer from the embattled Labour council. While the full details are yet to emerge, what we know so far is that the deal includes: a two-year ‘pay cushion’ where wages don’t change for workers facing a cut, striking agency workers with 12 months plus service to be offered the opportunity of permanent jobs, all disciplinary measures related to the strike to be thrown out and no impacts on the pensions of those workers who have been on strike.
While questions remain, including what happens in two years time, this is a huge victory and a vindication of the action taken. It also sends a message to all local government employers attacking workers jobs, terms and conditions: that we will fight back.
Left wins NEC
At the same time, the announcement of the results of the Unite CEC elections has been the source of elation among many on the left, and has been a boost for rank-and-file members of the union. There is dismay among the remnants of the discredited regime around Len McClusky.
The Workers United/Back to the Workplace slate, who are supporters of General Secretary Sharon Graham’s left-wing manifesto, took 41 out of 61 seats on the Executive Council. This is a huge mandate for those fighting to build a democratic, militant trade union.
It is now imperative that Graham’s manifesto is carried out in full, and also that the leadership gives its full backing to ending the union’s affiliation with the Labour Party.
