OVER 3,000 striking Birmingham binworkers and their supporters marched from the Unite office to Birmingham City Hall on Saturday, fighting against massive £8,000 pay cuts that the Birmingham Labour Council is trying to impose on them.
Marking the six-month anniversary of the start of their all-out strike action, the 350 strikers led a mass march of supporters from around the country, including delegations of striking binworkers from Sheffield, who they had joined on their 1st anniversary march last month, as well as firefighters, nurses, council workers and others.
Marchers spoke to News Line along the route.
Pete Jackson, Midlands PCS Chairman, said: ‘We have full solidarity with the binworkers. This is a Labour council. The idea that a Labour council would cut wages is a warning of the lengths that PM Starmer will go to, therefore we all need to support this strike and come together to stop the cuts.’
Ali Moosa, CWU national officer, said: ‘We are here to support the binworkers. They have to be paid a fair wage and must be respected for the important job that they do.
‘We are here with Unite and their members. What the council and the Labour government are trying to do is unacceptable.’
Rob, from Unison, said: ‘We have to fight for the whole working class, not just the binworkers. It’s our jobs next.
‘Unison has a lot of public sector workers and this government is obviously going to make cuts in workplaces across the country. We must fight against them. The Birmingham binworkers must win.’
Addressing the rally at the end of the march, Annmarie Kilcline, Unite West Midlands regional secretary said: ‘The Birmingham binworkers have been out for over six months, so congratulations to them.
‘It’s been a hard fought battle so far. This is about workers who woke up one day and found out they could lose 25% of their wages.
‘This is about workers who have families, who worked through Covid heroically, now being treated appallingly, with disdain, workers who have bills to pay, mortgages.
‘This is about a Labour council who forced workers to go on strike. We are confident, we are staying out. The mandate has been renewed.’
Birmingham binworkers strike leader Mike Masters, said: ‘I would first like to say “Hasta la Vista” to Angela Rayner, who tried to defeat our strike, our struggle, but she failed and now she has gone.
‘She is an example of this so-called Labour government’s corruption. We are here for our city.
‘They have tried to make us scapegoat and say that the problems with the rubbish are down to us, but it’s down to the Labour council and the Labour government, the likes of John Cotton, the so-called council leader, who lives with much better wages and on better conditions than any binworker ever did, we will not let them defeat us.
‘We are Brummies, so to say we don’t have Birmingham’s interests at heart is a lie.
‘We thank everyone for coming, it gives us a real boost. We won’t let you down. We will win!’
Striking binman Danny, told the rally: ‘I’m proud to be a Birmingham binworker. We are here because of the £8,000 pay cuts. The council wants to cut the HGV levy, leaving them with far less money.
‘They want to introduce fire and rehire. We are here because of Angela Rayner. Before she was sacked, she visited Birmingham but didn’t come to a single picket line.
‘Instead, she held a meeting with the council and met some of the scab worker, who she congratulated on their “tenacity”.
‘They are trying to force voluntary redundancies. They are trying to bully workers into making decisions they don’t want to make.
‘They want to replace us with agency workers on low pay, with no rights, no sick pay, no holiday, longer hours, lower pay.
‘How could anyone accept that. It’s an insult to hardworking people doing a hard, dirty job.
‘Our workers are well-trained, they know their job, they know all the health and safety so they don’t get ill or have accidents. The council want to get rid of all of that.
‘During the strike, with the scabs brought in, there have been barely any bin collections. That is why the rubbish has piled up.
‘We have just re-balloted, with a 71% turnout and a 99% yes vote. We are standing strong. To every union supporting us and every group in solidarity – thank you. Together we will win.’
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘We stand with you shoulder to shoulder.
‘We say to this Labour council and this Labour government: “What you are doing is wrong. How can you treat the Birmingham binworkers like this. What are you doing?”
‘People that are Labour voters are abandoned. We say to them, we will not give in, we will carry on. Unite will make sure these workers are not starved back to work. We will have a strike fund.
‘In July this year, under Angela Rayner as Deputy Prime Minister, the Labour government made changes to the Employment Rights Bill so that any worker already in dispute can be fired and rehired.
‘If the Labour government carry on with their attacks on workers rather than supporting them we will end our political levy. We will stop supporting them financially. What is the point of a Labour government that is like that? We will disaffiliate, I mean it!
‘There was a deal on the table that was negotiated at ACAS, which we were going to put to the members. I’m not saying that it was acceptable, but at least it was something that we were going to put out.
‘But before it was fully signed off, they walked away from the negotiating. We will not allow workers to be treated like this.
‘As you have heard, we have extended our mandate into the new year. Victory to the Birmingham binworkers. Victory to all workers on strike!’
Rose Hunter, from Women Against Pit Closures told the rally: ‘Them ones in there (pointing at the Town Hall) are giving millions for scabs, from what I have been told by the binworkers, far more than the wages they would have received. It is a political strike.
‘It is coming up to the hardest part, Christmas, but I know that you will stay strong. There will be huge repercussions if you don’t, for workers everywhere, the whole of the working class, but you will.
‘During the miners strike there were big mass pickets. We did not lose our struggle, we went back to work. We were not starved out and neither will you be. You are an example to whole working class. You will win.’
