BIRMINGHAM, England — The nearly 400 refuse workers employed by the Birmingham City Council, members of Unite the Union, voted overwhelmingly to maintain their strike action, the union reported June 5. Workers voted by 97% in favor on a 75% turnout. Winning growing solidarity, strikers are determined to achieve a victory in their fight.
Two weeks earlier, the Labour Party-led City Council had won a temporary court injunction restricting pickets to only six at each of the bin-depot gates. This was to prohibit their slow-walk picketing, as well as any demonstrations in the vicinity of the depots. The injunction says if strikers violate its provisions they will be met with contempt of court charges that can lead to imprisonment and/or fines.
Pickets had been making important gains, winning over 11 drivers at the Perry Barr Depot who hadn’t joined the strike. Their slow-walking pickets were delaying refuse trucks leaving the depots by up to four hours.
They also told the Militant that a crew of three agency workers, who strikers have not asked to join their strike action, were sacked after their driver stopped to talk to pickets.
“They should have realized by now if they thought they were going to break us they are dead wrong,” Carl Roberts, a driver with 10 years on the job, said. Danny Taylor, a Unite steward, told the Militant the union is gathering evidence to challenge the injunction in court.
The refuse workers have been on strike since March 11, challenging the City Council’s assaults on their safety, wages and working conditions. The council has eliminated a safety-critical job, endangering the workers, and cut wages of over 200 loaders and drivers by up to 8,000 pounds ($10,800) a year.
The strikers continue to win solidarity. They’ve been traveling to cities and towns across the country, speaking at union and public meetings, including in London, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Leicestershire, Brighton and elsewhere.
They have been invited to lead the march at the Durham Miners’ Gala July 12, the largest annual trade-union gathering in the U.K.
They’ve received messages of support, donations and visits to their picket line by fellow trade unionists, as more workers learn about their fight and see the stakes in its outcome. While this Militant worker-correspondent was on the picket line, a driver pulled over and said he cheers for them every time they’re featured on the news.
Over 110 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union from Manchester Piccadilly train station signed union cards of solidarity and messages of support, including gateline workers, who won union recognition for the first time last year, as well as conductors, dispatchers, platform staff, cleaners and others. Clayton Clive, a conductor and chair of Manchester South RMT, wrote, “Nothing can defeat the power of the workers united.”
Four container truck drivers from the Trafford Park rail freight depot in Greater Manchester wrote, “We support you all the way.” Paul Kenyon, a RMT union representative for on-board catering workers, wrote, “We stand by your side as our own pay and conditions get worse, solidarity!”
One of the striking Unite members will speak at a public meeting at the Mechanics Institute in Manchester July 9, organized by the Manchester Trades Union Council.
Anne Howie contributed to this article.