Urgency to organise around Birmingham bin strike

At the organising meeting for bin strike solidarity in Birmingham

A wider solidarity movement is shaping around the sharpest industrial dispute facing Labour—the Birmingham bin strike.

But with the council unveiling plans to downgrade drivers’ pay, a wider class fight back is urgent. 

On Monday evening, around 60 workers, trade unionists and activists attended an organising meeting to build a wider fightback in support of the Birmingham bin workers. Speeches from the UCU union, People’s Assembly, Stop The War, We Demand Change and Strike Map combined with a wider discussion of tactics.  

Steeven Biset, a striking bin worker, told Socialist Worker, “I feel like firstly it’s important to get the word out, and secondly to get the truth to more people.

“The morale on the picket lines hasn’t changed—we want this dispute to be resolved, but similarly no one wants to go back to work losing a quarter of their wages.”

Salma Yaqoob from Stop The War said, “Would you want to take an £8,000 pay cut? People are fighting literally for their lives. 

“This is what they do to us—wars abroad, attacking refugees, cutting benefits, attacking disabled people. They pick people off and make them feel alone.

“What’s the antidote? It’s of course solidarity—because when greed and profit is the god, you can sacrifice anything to that.”  

Paula Dunne from Strike Map unveiled a £2,000 check that had been raised in solidarity for Birmingham workers.

One of the key talking points was organising a demonstration in Birmingham, something which union branches around Britain have said they would support.

Doug, a local activist in Birmingham, told the meeting from the floor, “We need to get a bit of a movement, where people are talking to each other.

“If Unite doesn’t call the big demonstrations, we need to put out a beacon—call a protest and say that this city is receptive to solidarity. 

“Birmingham has had a whiff, it’s true—a whiff of class struggle.”

Pete, who came from London, echoed Doug. “What I’d like to see is that people get together and get down to the pickets, coupled with a call from Unite for a mass picket.

“You make that call, people will respond to it.”

“The boss class doesn’t play fair,” said Michael from Unite for a Workers’ Economy. “So this dispute needs to move out of the picket line—we need to broaden this fight.”

Michael later explained to Socialist Worker that a campaign must involve targeted action, isolating shareholders and using stakeholders to apply wider pressure. He added that larger protests “would be a massive step forward”.

Steeven said that “workers would definitely back big protests—it would be step in the right direction. It would solve everything all at once, but any positivity, any big show of support is good.”

“Business people think in numbers,” he told Socialist Worker, “So we need to show them that we’re the ones with the numbers. That would be a step towards to winning.”

The other key theme was cementing the understanding that this is everyone’s fight. Lewis Nielsen from We Demand Change told the floor, “If this dispute loses, it’ll give a greenlight to every council, a greenlight to Keir Starmer, that this is how you break strike.

“But imagine if it wins, imagine if workers can ends this dispute saying they stood tall and they beat council and government.

Lewis said that with Starmer’s attacks on the working class, attacks on migrants, attacks on trans+ people “he’s handing the keys to Reform UK”.

“This dispute can either set us back or push us forwards in terms of creating an alternative to Starmer’s Labour. That vision and goal is incredibly important one for us to have.”

As Steeven said, bin workers are up for a fight. But the response from the left has not matched the scale of the dispute.

Ultimately, trade union leadership has been slow to act. Where is the response from local government workers in Birmingham? Why has Unite not called a national demonstration, drawing on the trade union support that evidently exists?

It emphasises that workers themselves must lead the fight back, linking up struggles as Birmingham council’s austerity attacks everyone. Leafleting and petitioning workplaces and using social media are important step—but a broader workers’ movement is essential to beat Labour’s class war.