The never ending cuts policies of Birmingham City Council is the root cause of the latest bin workers’ strike.
To plug the hole in its finances the council wants to downgrade the skilled workers on the bin wagons. This will result in pay cuts of up to £8000 a year for the affected workers. They look out for potential hazards which could injure members of the public or bin workers because drivers have no visibility to the rear. The absence of this in Coventry recently led to the death of a refuse worker there.
The council also want to reduce black bin/bag collections to fortnightly, which could led to even more rubbish piling up in the streets!
This is part of another £195 million of cuts planned in the next year which will see libraries, day centres and youth clubs close. And we'll be paying more for less with a second 10% council tax hike planned.
The council are trying to blame female workers for demanding and winning equal pay for the council’s financial mess. But it wasn't them that wasted over £100m on an IT system that didn't work, or overpaid contributions to the pension fund by £500 million.That money is still sat there! Council workers, and service users should demand that the government provide the cash to stop the cuts and fund the services we need.
Only one Labour councillor has voted against cuts, and got kicked out. We need community activists, council workers and anti-cuts councillors to stand a list of anti cuts candidates at the 2026 council elections to provide an alternative to Starmer's Labour.