THE 38 striking Sheffield recycling workers, alongside their supporters, lobbied the Labour Council at Sheffield Town Hall yesterday to demand the reversal of five sackings that have already been made, and big cuts in working hours for the remainder of the workforce.
The strike, which began more than three weeks ago, and has already seen action over three successive weekends, is set to continue all this week and is likely to be declared indefinite next week.
Fellow trade unionists in Yorkshire are already pledging donations to back the workforce.
At the same time, sub-contractor employers SOLA, a ‘charity’ employer which finds jobs for ex-offenders, is providing workers to do the jobs of the five already-sacked.
GMB Sheffield organiser Peter Davies, who brought official support to the strikers at the town hall, told News Line: ‘There’s a full council meeting today.
‘On the agenda there’s a motion asking the council to withdraw the sackings and the wage cuts.
‘There’s still enough money left in the system to more than keep this service going.
‘We think it’s absolutely wrong to be cutting these services at the very time when the service is being changed to twice weekly collections anyway.
‘People can’t survive on these wages and there’s no need for that number of cuts.’
He continued: ‘It’s sad to say that the only councillor who’s putting a motion to support these workers is a Green Party councillor.
‘ACAS contacted me about the dispute. I said to them we would welcome a meeting but it has to be with decision-makers at the table.
‘If anybody is willing to make some compromise in the dispute, we’ll be able to settle it.
‘I do know that the Labour Council’s Cabinet member for community services has refused to come to the table and as yet ACAS has not responded.’
