{"id":439504,"date":"2025-09-20T22:14:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T22:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/439504\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T22:14:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T22:14:13","slug":"rage-at-labour-council-on-birmingham-bin-worker-demo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/439504\/","title":{"rendered":"Rage at Labour council on Birmingham bin worker demo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tLabour<\/a><\/p>\n

Striker David: \u2018They tell us to live within our means\u2014I\u2019ve got no means left\u00a0to\u00a0live\u00a0within.\u2019<\/p>\n

By Arthur Townend<\/b><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDownloading PDF. Please wait…<\/p>\n

Saturday 20 September 2025<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tIssue <\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\"March<\/p>\n

Hundred marched through Birmingham led by striking workers (Pic: Guy Smallman)<\/p>\n

The Birmingham bin strike has reached a crunch point. Unite union members started an all-out strike over six months ago after the Labour-run Birmingham council announced an \u00a38,000 cut to wages<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Saturday, hundreds of workers, trade unionists and labour activists marched through the city to show they won\u2019t accept Labour\u2019s savage cuts. The march was loud and defiant, defined by anger at Labour and determination to win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a lifelong Labour supporter, and I would never vote for them again,\u201d striker David told Socialist Worker. \u201cAll of this is aided and abetted by a Labour government\u2014I find it abhorrent.\u201d<\/p>\n

David said there was \u201cstill strong momentum\u201d on the picket lines, but there was some \u201cfatigue\u201d setting in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main problem is the court injunctions, which mean we just have to stand by watching the trucks go out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drivers like David were told by the council they would be exempt from cuts\u2014but the council then came for them anyway. Backed-up by Labour and the disgraced Angela Rayner, the council\u2019s cuts have only escalated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a good level of optimism we can win,\u201d David said.\u00a0\u201cBut the main problem is the compulsory redundancies\u201d\u2014in July, the council threatened to sack<\/a> over 100 workers. \u201cAnd they keep talking about this fair and reasonable offer. My \u2018reasonable\u2019 offer is a 25 percent pay cut or the sack\u2014I can\u2019t accept that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey tell us to live within our means\u2014I\u2019ve got no means left\u00a0to\u00a0live\u00a0within.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another striker, Sam said, \u201cWe\u2019re trying to stay strong, keep out on the picket lines. Hopefully this will help us get the momentum back.\u201d On 9 May a well supported mega picket<\/a> demonstrated the strikers\u2019 power. It stopped vans from leaving the depot and the council was forced to shut it for the day. But Sam added that some momentum has been \u201clost\u201d since then.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of bins are still being collected because of the scabs\u2014so a lot of people don\u2019t even realise we are still out on strike,\u201d Sam said. \u201cThat\u2019s an issue\u2014we need to be loud to tell them we still need their support.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was strong support from other trade unions, including the NEU, Unison Barnett, PCS, CWU and groups such as Strike Map and Women Against Pit Closures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shaun, a member of the Dudley and District NEU branch said he was there because he\u2019s \u201cnot just a teacher, but a trade unionist\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSupport for the bin workers is support for everyone\u2014pushing this fire and rehire is bad, and it\u2019ll get worse if the council wins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fighting for our rights\u2014look at the present political moment. Nigel Farage is on the up, but he\u2019s not a friend of the trade unions. He\u2019s against raising the minimum wage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaun said Labour were simply \u201cred Tories\u201d. \u201cI dropped out of the Labour Party in 2021\u2014the real question is how can anyone claiming to be a socialist be in Labour.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shaikhi, a member of Birmingham CWU said, \u201cYou get together and support each other otherwise you lose the battle\u2014it\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaikhi said the council\u2019s actions are a disgrace. \u201cThe unions are the ones who created the Labour Party but now it\u2019s Labour attacking the working class. Get rid of them all\u2014if the council gets away with this, it will happen to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the beginning of the strike, there was a sense that if Birmingham council won, other councils would follow suit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The council has tried everything to break the strike. As workers rallied outside the council building, striker Danny said, \u201cSection 14, court injunctions, police breaking picket lines, private security threats, the illegal deduction of holiday pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sets a dangerous precedent. The council is pushing people into roles members aren\u2019t trained for, pressuring workers into life changing roles\u2014it\u2019s a sham.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham told the rally, \u201cWe are not going to crumble, we are not going to move on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA Labour council, backed by a Labour government, has used Margaret Thatcher\u2019s anti-trade union laws on our picket lines. They have spent millions and millions of pounds on injuncting those same picket lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unite has been fined for breaking the injunction<\/a>. \u201cFor every single fine that we get, we will take every single penny out of our Labour affiliation,\u201d Graham said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI say to Labour, the Labour MPs and the councillors, where are you? Because they are not backing their communities. And when they ask me, what can we do to get back support, I say to them, \u2018show workers whose side you are on\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday was a good show of support from the trade union movement for a struggle that is essential to win. But the council has proved it will not negotiate, it will not listen. Demonstrations and calls for negotiations will not be enough to put pressure on the council.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Winning this struggle requires mass workers\u2019 action\u2014the anger is there, and the mega pickets showed the way.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour Striker David: \u2018They tell us to live within our means\u2014I\u2019ve got no means left\u00a0to\u00a0live\u00a0within.\u2019 By Arthur Townend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,528,7101,16,34004,11660,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-439504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-labour-party","13":"tag-strikes","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-unions","16":"tag-unite","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115238932630141048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}