Trade unionists and supporters from across the country joined bin workers on a mass picket last year
The Birmingham bin strike is set to pile more pressure onto the council as workers plan another mega picket for 30 January.
Over 20 trade unions and organisations, including Your Party, have backed the action, which is looking to shut down all bin sites in Birmingham and another site in Coventry. The last mega picket in July achieved just that.
But since July, the dispute has escalated. In March, hundreds of Unite union members walked out against a vicious pay cut of up to £8,000.
Meanwhile, seven commissioners have pocketed over £2 million since they were appointed after the council went bankrupt in 2023.
For nearly a year, the Labour-run council has orchestrated a campaign of slander and strike-breaking, wielding the police and the law against strikers.
The council’s key weapon—the scab operation—was undermined in November, when some of the Job&Talent agency workers joined strikes.
A protest in December then showed the mood to continue the fight.
The council has claimed that it has offered workers a “fair and reasonable” offer, but it has done no such thing. Rubbish continues to line the streets as the council refuses to take the cuts, or redundancies, off the table.
It’s the sharpest dispute facing the Labour government.
Another mega picket, with agency workers on board, is crucial to bring back the momentum of the strike.
For information, go to tinyurl.com/MegPic3D
Education workers at Whitefield School in Waltham Forest, east London, are set to strike next Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
NEU union members say that increasing class sizes are harming education. Teachers and support workers often are asked by management to do things that aren’t in their job description.
The school is one for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send). Bigger class sizes mean that education workers are less able to give as much attention to each child. And with no resources, teachers are often buying supplies out of their own pocket.
Excessive workloads, financial problems caused by management and a lack of meaningful consultation have led NEU union members at Belmont Park School to strike.
Failures of management at the Waltham Forest school have pushed workers to walk out next Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
A new headteacher joined the school last January and workers are upset with the direction they are taking the school.
Workers say there is a lack of professionalism. When trade union reps have been at the forefront of supporting members, there have been attempts to use disciplinary action to punish them.
The RMT union protested outside London’s Marylebone station on Monday morning against plans to introduce Driver Only Operation (DOO) on the new East West Rail line.
Chiltern Railways said it intends to operate services on the new route without a second member of staff.
Its announcement coincides with the publication of new data that racial and religious hate crime on public transport is on the rise. In England and Wales the sharpest rise is in religious hate crimes targeting Muslims.
Ebony is a London Underground worker and the chair of the RMT National Black and Ethnic Minorities Members’ Advisory Committee. She told Socialist Worker she was “not surprised” by the data “considering you’ve got idiots such as Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk demonising Muslims”.
One of the deterrents is “more security in terms of people walking through carriages just checking what’s going on”, she said.
Whether it’s racism, sexism, homophobia or transphobia, abusers know that once on a train people find it hard to evade them.
That’s why it’s so important that there are always trained staff present on public transport. Workers should be prepared to take industrial action if bosses try to force through driver‑only operations.
Stagecoach bus workers in Cambridgeshire have begun the new year fighting for decent pay.
Around 250 Unite union members walked out on Monday, and are set to strike for three further days on Saturday, 19 and 24 January.
Unite called off strikes on 17 December, but workers rejected the offer and went ahead with strikes over Christmas.
Stagecoach bosses want to slash overtime payments, which many drivers rely on to manage the huge housing costs in the city as well as rising energy and food bills.
The drivers had negotiated a two year pay deal in an attempt to ensure pay keeps up with inflation. But Stagecoach said any pay increase would have to come at the cost of cuts to overtime payments.
Drivers at Peterborough and Fenstanton depots have accepted the offer, but Cambridge and Haverhill are still refusing.
Stagecoach is running reduced services with workers brought in from other areas. If strikers can find out where these drivers are from and get their union branch to act, it will strengthen the strike.
Thanks to Tom Woodcock and Merv Hughes
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Baggage handlers at Luton Airport are voting on a new pay offer following strikes.
DHL workers in Luton are currently around 15 percent worse-off compared to their counterparts at Gatwick Airport.
Around 200 Unite union members walked out on a three day strike on 19 December.
Jeff Hodge, Unite Regional Officer, said the DHL Unite branch has seen a 170 percent increase in members and double the number of reps since the dispute began in July.
Workers were set to strike after Christmas, but have called off strikes to vote on a new offer.
Andrew Robbins
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