A mass picket outside Lumley Street
By 6am on Wednesday morning, up to 200 workers, trade unionists, students, socialists and Palestine activists were out at the Lumley Street bin depot in Sheffield.
They were standing strong in their support for refuse workers on strike against Veolia. For over ten months, workers have been on all out strike to demand Veolia recognises its chosen union, Unite.
Among the union flags represented were Aslef, Unison and the NEU, with Sheffield and Liverpool TUC banners alongside.
Even before the mega picket was held, the threat alone had Veolia spooked. Veolia split its convoy across two depots. It ushered the scab service out onto the streets of Sheffield at the crack of dawn to avoid any confrontation.
The mega picket marked a serious reinvigoration of the strike following a re-ballot. Workers voted 96 percent in favour of carrying on the fight on an 83 percent turnout. One striking worker, Joel Mayfield, explained that is far stronger than any mandate for austerity-pushing, genocide-supporting politicians.
A delegation of 15 striking workers from the Birmingham bin strike also joined. It was their mega picket on 9 May that showed the effectiveness of mass pickets. They showed that strikers can shape escalation from below and will do so again on 25 July.
Another great display of solidarity came from students from the Soas university Palestine encampment. Students there have faced huge repression, and Soas put a court injunction to ban students from protesting on campus.
Veolia strikers have faced the same type of injunction to stop them slow walking in front of the scab vehicles as they left the depot. The students made the argument that the fight against state repression has to be linked, and that an attack on each is an attack on all. It was well received across the picket line.
At a meeting of Sheffield City council, Joel grilled the councillors on their inaction. The council upheld their contract with Veolia, a Paris-based corporation which made £11.7 million of profits from its Sheffield operations in 2023.
Joe Diviney, a member of Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign and a leading organiser of the strike said, “We are putting Veolia on notice that they’re to pull their finger out and sort it before the strike reaches it’s one year anniversary, or we will organise a picket line the likes of which will be beyond your reasoning.”
The mass picket tactic shows how working class fightback can put the heat on scabs, greedy union busting bosses and back-stabbing politicians. Working class action can turn the tide.
Joe added, “This isn’t about just one mass picket on one morning. This isn’t the last time we will organise a huge demonstration outside of Lumley Street—we want a summer of mass pickets.”
Ciaran and Patrick Wakefield, Sheffield
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