Birmingham Mail articles 30/12

Two articles online at Birmingham Mail today about the refuse workers strike:

Birmingham City Council blames bins backlog on triple whammy

A TRIPLE whammy of strike action, snow and the regular Christmas increase in waste food and packaging has left Birmingham’s refuse collection service overwhelmed and piles of black bags in the streets

and

Birmingham binmen strike: Readers have their say

A mixture of supportive and not so supportive letters from Mail readers, and I would imagine letters will continue to come into the newspaper about the strike and it’s aftermath.

letters@birminghammail.net is their email address.

The local media coverage of the strike shows that it is having a noticeable effect.  In the first article, Kevin Mitchell – Assistant director of fleet and waste management – said

he recognised that the unions, Unite, GMB, Unison and UCATT, had timed their industrial action to perfection and caused maximum disruption to the service.

“The unions’ action was strategically spot on,” he said.

We hope the strike and work to rule actions prove as effective in ensuring the council meet the unions demands as they have been in generating local news coverage.

Birmingham Refuse Collectors and Street Cleaners Fight Cuts in Pay

Over 400 Birmingham refuse collectors and street cleaners took a one day strike action on Monday 20th December in a dispute over pay cuts which could lead to up to £4,000 a year in lost pay. Members of three trade unions, Unite, UNISON and GMB, were solidly on strike, with little passing through the picket lines at half a dozen depots around the city.

Picket lines started as early as 4 am in the morning in temperatures which fell to minus 10 degrees, in the snow choked city. As many as thirty to fifty maintained the picket lines outside the main depots throughout the morning.

Crews also started a ‘work-to-rule’ from the following day. Management are attempting to break the strike through recruiting inexperienced, untrained casual workers. Union members are furious and determined to win this dispute.

The action by Fleet and Waste Management members has been well timed, with an expected 30% increase in refuse left by households over the Christmas and New Year period. Already Birmingham is being called the Black Bag City as rubbish piles up. This gives us no pleasure or satisfaction but our F&WM members have been given no choice but to fight to stop these pay reductions. Refuse collectors and street cleaners take pride in their contribution to making Birmingham a clean city.

Talks have taken place with the unions and the council for well over a year but no acceptable offer has been made by management. The new contracts with pay cuts were imposed in November 2010 and the last pay packets before Christmas saw major reductions in pay for many.

Stewards and union officials will be meeting shortly to discuss the next steps. Management need to fully appreciate the strength of feeling of our members and bring to the table proposals for settling this dispute.

The city council is also proposing to reduce the pay of another 8,000+ staff by removing additional pay for working weekends and shifts, amongst many other local allowances. This could mean up to a third of the earnings of low paid carers, cleaners, cooks and many others.

Report from Graeme Horn, Joint Branch Secretary, UNISON Birmingham Branch

Photographs from Graeme Horn and Right to Work

New Leaflet for Connexions Strike 6th January

(Click to enlarge)

Save EMA Birmingham Jan 11th

To coincide with the vote on EMA in parliament, Stop Fees and Cuts Birmingham have called for people to write to their MP and councillors to help to prevent EMA – a means-tested payment made to students in Further Education – and to attend a demonstration in Birmingham City Centre from 4pm, January 11th, meeting by Waterstones near the Bullring.

They have setup a facebook event with more information

Link

Birmingham refuse dispute bites

Right to Work report on Fleet and Refuse Mgt. strike:

The overtime ban by refuse workers in Birmingham, alongside their 1 day strike on Monday 20th December, has hit the ConDem council hard.

Source

Birmingham City Council to cut £300M

A report from the Guardian following Eric Pickles’ council budget announcements says this:

On [14th December], Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, revealed that Birmingham faces a reduction in spending power of 8.32%, which is almost double the national average and just under the maximum amount to be imposed nationwide.

…

The reality is that Birmingham council estimates it needs to cut £300m in expenditure over the next four years, which translates into £300,000 for each working day. Plans have been announced to eliminate approximately 10,000 public sector jobs through redundancies and early retirement, which is devastating for a city with an unemployment rate already of 13.5%, well above the national average of 7.9%.

 

The full article is here

Birmingham has the highest unemployment rate of any city in the UK, and has 3 of the 5 parliamentary constituences with the highest rate of unemployment in the UK, but we will face almost the maximum budget cuts whilst wealthy constituencies face only a small reduction in spending resources.

Birmingham can ill afford to lose 10,000 council jobs with the knock on effects that the TUC has shown this will have [link].

Birmingham should not be facing cuts at all, there are alternatives to the cuts.  Birmingham should certainly not be facing amongst the largest % reductions in spending in the UK.  These cuts will harm the economy, both locally and nationally, and will hit the poorest hardest.

 

Birmingham Post on bin strikes 29/12

Birmingham bin bags could take a month to be collected

http://tinyurl.com/2g6dcbj

Birmingham Post reports on the immediate after effects of the Birmingham Fleet and Waste Mgt.  strike.

Connexions strike 6th January

Connexions workers will be holding a half-day strike and rally on the 6th January

Strikes at Northfield and Broad Street Connexions offices from 12:30

Rally at Victoria Square from 2:30

See the Upcoming Actions page for more information

GMB, Unite, Unison and UCATT Binmen strike

On Monday 20th December, Birmingham’s binmen held a 24hr strike over £4,000 paycuts.  This will be followed by a two week work to rule action.

GMB, Unite, Unison and UCATT members took part in picket lines held at refuse collection depots in Birmingham.

The picket lines began at 4:45am, and at Lifford Lane temperatures were as low as Minus 9 degrees.  There have been no reports of the picket lines being crossed, after Birmingham City Council had sought to employ temporary staff to break the lines.

More reports and information to follow

Solidarity