The Unite Birmingham bin strike has entered its ninth week, and the determination of the striking workers has only grown stronger. What began as a response to the Labour council’s decision to axe a vital role within the city’s refuse and recycling service - impacting pay by as much as £8,000 per worker - has evolved into a powerful display of national solidarity and grassroots resistance.
As Socialist Party members have warned, this is not just about bin workers; it’s about the future of all public sector workers and the communities they serve.
On Friday 9 May, a mass picket at the Lifford Lane depot brought together hundreds of striking bin workers, trade unionists, and community supporters from across the UK.
The picket effectively shut down the depot, with only one van attempting - and failing - to leave the site. The scale and spirit of the action reflected the growing anger at a council determined to impose cuts despite the devastating effects on public services and workers’ livelihoods.
Despite the council invoking a major incident and deploying Section 14 of the Public Order Act to stifle pickets, the strike continues to gather momentum. The Labour council has even enlisted army planners and agency labour to undermine the strike.
As FBU General Secretary Steve Wright pointed out, in response to suggestions that firefighters could be drafted in to clear rubbish, “You have more chance getting firefighters to put petrol on fires than getting them to break the strikes.”
From the National Education Union to train drivers’ union ASLEF, from NHS campaigners to refuse workers in Sheffield who have been on strike for ten months, the message was clear: this is a fight for all of us.
There is strong public support, despite media efforts to demonise the strikers. The council’s own workers have echoed that sentiment, telling management the way to make them feel valued is simple: “Stop the cuts and pay the bin workers!”
Pete Randle, Unite organiser, said: “Today’s message is collective organisation across the trade union movement shows the power unions have”. He told the assembled crowd: “This is what a union looks like when people mobilise from the trade union movement… That solidarity gives you no end of power going forward”
This was echoed by Unite national lead officer Onay Kasab, who made the purpose of the strike clear: “We’re not asking for extra money, we’re not asking for improvements in terms and conditions, we’re defending pay.” He warned that negotiations had worsened, not improved, with the council. “The dispute began because the employer decided it was going to delete posts, and in the middle of negotiations it also decided it was going to cut pay for another 200 workers as well.”
This strike has become a lightning rod for resistance against austerity and the betrayal of working-class communities by Labour councils. The Socialist Party stands firmly with the striking workers and calls for joint action across unions to stop these attacks. As is Unite’s policy, unions should demand no-cuts budgets and fight for full funding from this Labour government for council services.
There is no more powerful force than the unions themselves, particularly the other unions in Birmingham council, as their members face the same cuts coming down the line. A national and local call for mass action and support, including a Saturday demonstration in Birmingham and more mass solidarity pickets, could raise the sights of the strikers and the wider working class in the city that a victory can be won.
If the bin workers win, we all win.
Their fight is our fight.