BIRMINGHAM, England — The strike by hundreds of refuse workers here, members of the Unite union, has entered its ninth week and is winning support.
Eleven drivers at Perry Barr, one of three refuse depots, who were previously crossing the picket line have now joined the strike.
“They’ve responded to the council expanding its attack,” Paul Boddy, a striker from the Lifford Lane depot, told the Militant. The strike started in response to Birmingham Council’s decision to get rid of a safety-critical loaders job, with workers downgraded and getting a pay cut.
“Now in the works is downgrading the 200 drivers,” he added. For drivers like Boddy, “putting us on Grade 3 will mean a pay cut of 9,000 pounds [$11,850] per year, lost forever, including for new recruits. What’s at stake is the future of the union.”
The council’s cost-cutting attacks come on the heels of its 2023 bankruptcy declaration.
“If they’re bankrupt, don’t take it out on the workers, we didn’t cause this problem,” striker Adrian Hyde told BBC News.
“If Birmingham Council gets away with this, others will be certain to follow suit,” Simon Edwards said. He is the Unite branch secretary for refuse workers in Cardiff, Wales, and one of four from there who joined a demonstration outside the Lifford Lane depot May 9.
Some 150 union members and strike supporters from around the country participated, swelling the numbers on the picket line to 200. The Birmingham Council closed the depot because of the action and no trucks went out that day.
Participants included a delegation from the East Midlands region of the Fire Brigades Union; Mick Wheland, general secretary of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Fireman; and Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union.
A motion supporting the strikers was passed by delegates at the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers National Industrial Organising Conference of Transport Cleaning Workers May 9. “You are standing up for all of us,” the rail workers message said.