In a gesture of solidarity with Birmingham’s striking refuse collectors, trade unionists from all over the UK, including Northern Ireland, descended on Birmingham on Friday 30 January. This action, the third so-called ‘Megapicket’ of the dispute so far successfully closed down waste disposal sites across the city.
Savage pay cuts for Birmingham waste workers
Birmingham’s bin workers, members of Unite the Union, have now been on strike for over a year and have vowed to remain out until Birmingham’s Labour-led council withdraw their outrageous plan to force through a re-grading exercise that would mean a pay cut of between £6,000 – £8,000 per year. Since rejecting the ‘deal’ in January 2025, and moving to an all-out strike in March 2025, the bin workers have faced down all attempts by the Council to defeat the strike, including a press campaign of misinformation, vilification and downright lies; the imposition of a High Court injunction designed to prevent effective picketing; and, the organisation of a strikebreaking operation using agency workers.
Deadlock
Negotiations to resolve the dispute have remained in deadlock since last May when the Council arrogantly withdrew from talks, claiming they had made their ‘final offer’ and clearly expecting the strike to crumble. On the contrary the strikers have stayed strong, and in an unprecedented development just before Christmas over 50 of the agency workers involved in the strikebreaking operation voted to join the strike, citing intimidation by management and blacklisting threats.
The council filed for bankruptcy in 2023, after more than a decade of Tory austerity cuts saw real terms grant funding to councils reduced by 40%. Government commissioners appointed to run the bankrupt council in 2024 imposed cuts to services of £300 million, along with council tax increases of 10% in both 2024 and 2025. All of this was voted through the council by Labour councillors. This is the context in which the bin workers dispute must be seen. Five other councils have filed for bankruptcy since 2021, and several others are on the verge of it. If Birmingham can succeed in making workers’ pay for the crisis, then so can others.
Boot out the scab Labour council
Birmingham’s Labour council have now spent over £33 million trying to break the workers in the bins dispute, a sum far greater than could possibly be ‘saved’ by the proposed pay cuts. Political pressure is mounting as Brummies place the blame for the state of the city’s streets at the council’s door. Elections in May will likely see Labour annihilated, but a new administration can only be relied upon to resolve the dispute in the worker’s favour, if it is genuinely committed to anti-auterity policies. To this end TUSC (Trade Union and Socialist Coalition) will be attempting not only to run as many candidates as possible but also to ask other candidates, who may have opposed cuts in words, to pledge themselves to the fight for decent services.
