Jeremy Corbyn backs Birmingham bin strikes at ‘megapicket’

Large crowds of people have joined a second “megapicket” in Birmingham to show their support for the city’s striking bin workers.

Among them was former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who spoke at a gathering on Pershore Street earlier, attended by members of different unions who had travelled across the country to show solidarity with their Unite counterparts.

Bin workers in the city have been on all-out strike since March in a row over pay, linked in part to proposals to change some job roles. Corbyn told the BBC workers “should not be faced with a wage cut”.

Birmingham City Council has said it has “negotiated in good faith” during the long-running dispute but Unite had “rejected all offers”.

At the “megapicket”, some supporters of the workers described them as the “heroes of the pandemic” who had kept the city moving during the crisis.

Corbyn, addressing the gathering, criticised the Labour-led city council and said the bin workers were “not the ones who wasted money on the Commonwealth Games, they’re not the ones who buried their heads in the sand for many, many years instead of looking at the finances of the city”.

“They’re the ones who have tried to keep the city clean and keep the city operating.”

A key feature of the dispute is the council’s decision to remove the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) role from the workforce.

The union claims about 170 affected workers face losing up to £8,000 a year as a result, although the council disputes the figures.

Corbyn told the gathering that those on strike should be able to return to work with their wages intact.

The “megapicket” was again organised by Strike Map, a group of trade union activists who have created a digital map to demonstrate where industrial action is taking place nationally.

The picket comprised of three gatherings in the city on Friday and formed a group of thousands, Strike Map said. The other locations included the city’s Atlas and Perry Barr depots.

In May, hundreds of union workers travelled on coaches from areas including Bristol and Leeds to support striking refuse workers at the Lifford Lane depot in Kings Norton, Birmingham.

Corbyn told the BBC it was up to the city council to “do an arrangement with central government” in order to protect the wages and conditions of staff.

John Cotton, leader of the Labour-run council, said earlier this month: “Throughout this process the council has sought to be reasonable and flexible, but we have reached the absolute limit of what we can offer.”

He said the authority needed to create a better waste service as “an efficient, improved service is a crucial part of our need to become financially sustainable and is what the people of Birmingham need.”