All-out strike has been blighting Birmingham for nine weeks – as we approach week ten, is there any end in sight?
Protestors support bin workers at Lifford Lane depot rally (Image: Adam Yousef)
Birmingham City Council and the bins union Unite remain at loggerheads as the all-out strike blighting the city enters its tenth week.
Dispute negotiations are said to be ongoing amid claims truck drivers are being drafted in from neighbouring authorities to plug gaps as more staff allegedly ‘walk out’, with bin truck drivers leading a new exodus.
But today the council reported that disruption experienced last week had now eased and all three depots in the city – Atlas in Tyeseley, Perry Barr and Lifford Lane in Kings Norton – were operating as normal after they brought in support from neighbouring local authorities, including Coventry, which has been embroiled in its own dispute with Unite.
READ MORE: ‘We could stay on strike all summer’ – defiant bin workers face down council
A ‘mega picket’ attracted up to 300 people from around the country during a morning of action on Friday May 9. As a result, the council shut down its Lifford Lane depot in a pre-emptive move to avoid any confrontations.
The arbitration and conciliation service Acas is involved in on-going negotiations.
There is also increasing frustration the strike has exposed longstanding inequality across the city, with inner city, overcrowded areas hardest hit by flytipping and abandoned rubbish heaps.
Other parts of the city can afford to organise private rubbish collections and, where necessary, to store rubbish in gardens, while inner city terraces and flats often dispose of rubbish in black bin bags and communal collection points, not individual wheelie bins.
Alexis Paton, director of the Centre for Health and Society at Aston University, said the disparity in the build-up of rubbish in Birmingham was in part due to the fact that richer neighbourhoods could afford private collection.
“If you don’t want to join the wait-list for the NHS and you have the money, you can go for a private option. We’re seeing the exact same thing happen with rubbish.”
Protestors at the rally outside Lifford Lane depot
Paton told the FT the conditions in poorer neighbourhoods were leading to an increase in rodents, infections and access issues for people with disabilities. “We’re starting to see some real inequalities playing out.”
Award-winning actor Khalid Abdalla, who played Princess Diana’s lover Dodi Fayed in the hit series The Crown, has become the latest name to back the bin workers in their dispute.
Based in London, so not directly affected by the impact of the strike, the film and TV star has joined the likes of ex Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and UB40 to back the Birmingham bin workers on strike over pay and jobs.
Khalid Abdalla, who played Princess Diana’s lover Dodi Fayed in the hit series The Crown, has become the latest name to back the bin workers in their dispute.
Abdalla, who has also appeared in Hollywood films United 93, The Kite Runner and Assassin’s Creed, posed for a photo with a hand-drawn poster expressing solidarity with the city’s bin workers during a conference featuring former Labour leader Corbyn.
Speaking at the Counterfire ‘Revolution!’ conference in London, Corbyn, now sitting as an independent MP, said: “My message to our colleagues in Birmingham on strike is you’re on strike because the council has reacted to the financial crisis of Birmingham Council by trying to cut your wages and cut your income levels.
“You’re on strike defending, what is a very basic thing, the collective agreement you’ve reached on the levels of pay you receive, so you have my support in the strike you’re undertaking and don’t be intimidated.”
READ MORE: Whose side are you on in the bin strike? Have your say
Unite members among the city’s waste workforce began an all-out strike on March 11 after disputing the city council’s decision to remove Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles from its bin crews, affecting 170 staff.
They are also now battling job evaluation plans that could see bin truck drivers switched to a lower pay grade.
Lifford Lane refuse collector Aaron Phipps said he was “devastated” by the situation and how much “financial stress it’s caused me and my family at home”.
“Basically, I came into work one day in January and I was told that I’m going to be losing £400 a month, every month forever, so it wasn’t just me who was told that, it was the majority of the workforce, so now we’re out here on strike.
“We’re just waiting on negotiations now and it seems like they’re taking a hell of a long time. I mean, the sooner they get sorted, the quicker we can get back to work and get this city back up to the standards that it should be.”
Unite national lead officer Onay Kasab said the strike was about “stopping austerity being imposed on refuse workers”. He described Friday’s rally as a way to support workers and defend their pay.
Former city councillor and NHS worker Salma Yaqoob also spoke to the crowd, telling them: “This is a battle now. We are seeing huge pay rises for bosses, for senior leaders and [for] the same people saying ‘there is no money, there is no alternative’, but that is a lie.
“It’s not just a four-legged rat that Brummies need to be worried about, it’s the two-legged rats that are in the corridors of power, in the Council House and in Parliament, and we are here to say enough is enough!”
Protestors support bin workers at Lifford Lane depot rally
Last month, Birmingham musicians UB40 gave their backing to the Birmingham bin strikers.
Appearing on the BBC’s Midlands Politics this weekend, Independent MP for Perry Barr, Ayoub Khan, also a city councillor, claimed many thousands of tonnes of rubbish were still on the streets, while no recycling was taking place.
“What [striking bin workers] are saying is very simple: ‘We’ve got mortgages to pay, we’ve got children to raise. The cost of living is going through the roof and we just want a fair deal.'”
While council opposition leader Cllr Robert Alden, Cons, Erdington, claimed rubbish was building up again because of the lack of trucks on the streets.
The council previously said it had no choice but to eliminate the WRCO role because of its implications in equal pay issues, and that the job evaluation exercise being carried out across the council workforce had involved all three trade unions, including Unite. The others are GMB and Unison.
We have reached out to the union and council for strike negotiation updates.