BIRMINGHAM, England — “I’m determined to stay to the end of this fight,” striker Derek Roberts said as he and some 30 other strikers maintained a protest picket line at the Lifford Lane refuse depot here Aug. 7. Several hundred Unite union refuse workers are now in the fifth month on strike against pay and job cuts the Labour Party-run City Council here aims to impose.
Bolstered by growing solidarity, the strikers reestablished picketing in early July that slowed down strikebreaking refuse truck drivers. The unionists had paused these pickets at the end of May after the council, accusing the strikers of violence, got a court injunction limiting pickets.
On July 25 the Birmingham Council had to shut down its three depots that day after several hundred strikers, fellow trade unionists and supporters rallied there. The council threatened a contempt of court action, claiming the union was defying the injunction. Since then strikers continue to protest at the depots every day, but have backed off “slow-walking” pickets.
“They are trying to prevent our right to picket,” union steward Matt Reid told this Militant worker-correspondent. At the same time, he said, the council has hired Tom White Waste company, owned by the nearby Labour-run Coventry Council, to bring 20 refuse trucks a day driven by agency workers to Birmingham. Coventry Council used the same scab outfit to break a 2022 refuse strike there.
The law prohibits companies from hiring agency workers to replace strikers, but by hiring a separate company to do so the council avoids the law. It’s “legalized strikebreaking,” Reid said. “It’s one law for them and another for us,” Roberts added.
“The council is pressing ahead with their job and pay cuts,” Reid said, after breaking off talks with the union July 9. This attack on the workers involves council moves to remove team leader responsibilities from refuse drivers, cutting their pay by 8,000 pounds ($10,750). Refuse loaders who had extra safety responsibilities will lose pay as well.
The council sent every refuse worker a letter threatening to get rid of them if they don’t accept these changes. Facing these pressures, a layer of mainly older workers have taken voluntary redundancy payouts and left the strike.
Despite these threats solidarity keeps strikers’ morale up. A London-wide meeting of Unite union bus driver stewards July 27 sent a strong message to the refuse strikers, saying, “Your fight is our fight.” Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers member Lee Williams brought greetings from the National Executive and read a solidarity message from its European Passenger Services branch.
Unionists from the National Education Union, Fire Brigades Union, Public and Commercial Services Union, Bakers union and others joined the action.
“I feel the unions are starting to wake up. We need to win this,” union steward Danny Taylor told the Militant after the action. To strengthen the strike, the union is planning a “family fun day,” with entertainment and food for workers and their families, Reid said.