‘CALL A National Strike Now!’ striking Birmingham binworkers are demanding at their mass rally today, which assembles at 9.30am at the Unite HQ, 30 Jennens Road, Birmingham, B74EH, for a 10am march on the Council Chambers, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB.
Hundreds of refuse workers have been on all-out strike for over six months against £8,000 pay cuts imposed by the Birmingham Labour Council with the backing of the Starmer government.
Striking Unite member Ali Chidodo told News Line yesterday afternoon: ‘The union should call national strike action. Starmer and Labour are not listening to the workers and they won’t make any offer that we can accept. The Labour government are in such a crisis today because they are attacking the workers.’
Striker Dave Callaghan said: ‘We’re marching to the Council Chambers to make clear that we’re not going away. Their pay cuts are disgusting and not viable. For some of us it’s a pay cut of £12,000.
‘Birmingham City Council has got no independence, it’s run by commissioners appointed by the government to prevent a deal from being reached, and the new commissioner they brought in six weeks ago is just as useless as the last one.
‘Our strike is very important to the whole working class. We’ve been likened to the miners strike which is mindblowing. I left school the year that happened and it was the first time I’d seen a battle against the government and it’s just the same today. We have to win.
‘Birmingham City Council and the Labour government are working together against us. They’ve amended the fire and rehire ban that the government is bringing in at the moment to say that any council that are already in dispute is allowed to fire and rehire. This is most disgusting and cynical and it’s coming from a Labour government! The union should call a national strike now!’
Striker James Lewis said: ‘We need a national strike to solve this. We’ve been out for eight months and we don’t see any progress. The union should not accept it. I’m sure the majority of us have the same stand and would support national strike action.’
Wendy Yarnaid said: ‘Something has got to be done now. We are all struggling financially. I’ve still got fight left in me. No-one can live with £8,000 pay cuts. Gas is going up, the shopping bill is going up and the government is saying we’ve got to have a pay cut!
‘These Labour councillors who have been elected to stand up for the workers are not standing up for the workers at all, they’re standing up for themselves and have had a 5.7% pay rise.
‘Labour keep banging on that they are out for the workers, but how can they be if they’re taking this money off us. I’m a council tenant and they are putting the rent up each and every year. I’ve got three children.
‘We all want to go back to work. How can they justify taking that type of money off us? If they get away with it with us the whole country will suffer. We need to beat them. If we lose this now they are going to come for everyone in the country.
‘There are a number of women workers in this fight, but when we all stand outside on our picket lines, we are all one and we’ve become stronger and stronger.
‘This Labour government took the winter payments off the elderly and closed the community centres where the elderly go for company. It’s horrible. Let’s unite and fight and call a national strike.’
