Infighting, austerity, opportunism: this is the tale of Birmingham’s decline | Kate Knowles
Reform and the Tories are rubbing their hands with glee as the rubbish piles up on the city’s streets yet againKate Knowles is editor of the Birmingham DispatchI was recently standing on a picket line at Birmingham’s largest waste depot with a case of deja vu. “We are massively underfunded. It does need changing,” Lee, a bin worker and union rep, told me. But the council’s current offer to end the strike isn’t good enough, he said. If it cuts wages the way it wants to, “people will lose their homes”.We’ve been here before. In 2017, during seven hot and smelly summer weeks, similar interviews were conducted in the same spot and images of sky-high mounds of uncollected rubbish were beamed out of Birmingham. That dispute was almost the same as the one we’re living through now: the council wants to get rid of a role that poses a hefty equal pay risk. Essentially, workers in other parts of the council on a similar grade don’t get the same pay or perks, which means they can make costly claims for compensation via unions or no-win, no-fee lawyers. Although the problem reared its head eight years ago, it wasn’t properly addressed – those strikes ended with essentially the same role in place but under a different name, allowing expensive claims to mount.Kate Knowles is editor of the Birmingham Dispatch Continue reading...
Reform and the Tories are rubbing their hands with glee as the rubbish piles up on the city’s streets yet again
- Kate Knowles is editor of the Birmingham Dispatch
I was recently standing on a picket line at Birmingham’s largest waste depot with a case of deja vu. “We are massively underfunded. It does need changing,” Lee, a bin worker and union rep, told me. But the council’s current offer to end the strike isn’t good enough, he said. If it cuts wages the way it wants to, “people will lose their homes”.
We’ve been here before. In 2017, during seven hot and smelly summer weeks, similar interviews were conducted in the same spot and images of sky-high mounds of uncollected rubbish were beamed out of Birmingham. That dispute was almost the same as the one we’re living through now: the council wants to get rid of a role that poses a hefty equal pay risk. Essentially, workers in other parts of the council on a similar grade don’t get the same pay or perks, which means they can make costly claims for compensation via unions or no-win, no-fee lawyers. Although the problem reared its head eight years ago, it wasn’t properly addressed – those strikes ended with essentially the same role in place but under a different name, allowing expensive claims to mount.
Kate Knowles is editor of the Birmingham Dispatch Continue reading...
