Birmingham bin workers’ fight against pay cuts has seen them take on the city council – and the government – in one of the most significant strikes of recent years, writes Paula Dunne of Strike Map
Climbing into the minibus at quarter to five in the morning, nine of us travelled to Birmingham as part of the Oxfordshire delegation for the bin workers’ strike mega-picket this May.
On the way, I received a phone call confirming that the crowds gathered at the waste depot had already successfully prevented strike-breaking trucks sent in by Birmingham City Council from cleaning up the rubbish in the city.
The significance of this dispute is resonating across Britain, and the world.
Cuts will not stop with the bin workers. Other councils and employers will be emboldened to make similar attacks on workers – if we don’t stand up against them.
Eight thousand pounds
On 9 May, bin workers and firefighters stood side by side at the depot, along with NHS workers, trade union general secretaries, workers on strike in other workplaces, and many residents of Birmingham.
Everyone was gathered with one common purpose: to show solidarity to the bin strikers expressing their anger at the local and national government’s continuation of austerity.
Derek Roberts, one of the bin workers on the picket line, highlighted how unusual and significant this dispute is: it’s about retaining their existing pay rather than asking for any kind of pay increase.
Birmingham City Council is attempting to cut bin workers' salaries by up to £8,000, meaning workers would lose £650 of their wages each month. Earlier this year, the same city council decided to award councillors a 5.7% pay rise.
No trucks today
Shutting down the Lifford Lane Depot was a huge win, and that was before many delegations across the country had even arrived. Once we made it to Kings Norton, one of the depot locations of this industrial dispute, we could see the crowd gathering in the distance.
Earlier that month, we handed a huge £2,000 cheque to the striking bin workers, raised in donations by Strike Map and Football Lads and Lasses Against Fascism. It was hard to ignore the unusually large police presence, attempting to prevent bin workers from bravely and slowly walking in front of trucks driven by agency workers to stop them from entering the depot.
But with masses of supporters gathering in solidarity mere weeks later, it was clear that the workers would not be intimidated.
A battle of wills
There were around eighty striking bin workers at the depot. Speaking to them, many expressed how meaningful it has been to receive financial support in donations from organisations and union branches across the country.
They also told me that public displays of solidarity mean more than anything.
As we walked over, we heard growing chants of “when I say union, you say power”, accompanied by the red flashes of flares being set off. We knew there’d be union branches and trades councils from Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Bristol, Gloucester, Oxfordshire, and of course, Birmingham. But as we got closer, we saw banners from Somerset, Manchester, and York too. In total, the mega-picket was supported by over twenty national trade unions, local unions, and campaign groups.
Worker’s pride, bosses’ shame
As a Brummie, I have never been prouder of the city.
Co-organised by Strike Map, We Demand Change, and Peace & Justice Project, the event welcomed dozens of speakers: a Birmingham bin worker; the general secretaries of the FBU, ASLEF, and NEU; a striking worker from Manchester NHS workers; Sheffield Veolia refuse workers; a Unite official, and Birmingham activists and trade unionists.
These bin workers are facing cuts inflicted by the council, but also by government-backed commissioners.
The strike began on 11 March, and by April the government had sent in the army to undermine the strike – instead of negotiating and scrapping plans to cut pay.
Firefighters don’t break strikes
A Lib Dem councillor even suggested that the fire service should be brought in to clear waste from the streets.
Steve Wright, FBU general secretary, made it absolutely clear to the bin workers that “you have more chance of asking firefighters to go and put petrol on fires than for us to break picket lines, break your strike and undermine your dispute."
Megapickets everywhere?
That day, we showed the local council, the government, and the media that mass mobilisation can bring the organised movement together to win. We shut the site down just by being there.
We can replicate the ‘megapicket’ model across the country, every time workers come under attack. Beyond social media, online actions and meetings, we must get out on the streets.
The Birmingham bin workers’ fight is all our fight, and this action is just the beginning.
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