Bingham BIN workers have received the support of ASLEF leaders and the National Education Union (NEU) in a “megapps” of collective action outside a deposit and recycling center.
Around 200 people gathered in Ebury Road, in the Kings Norton area of the city, to listen to the general secretary of Neu Daniel Kebede describe the total strike of Unite members, which began almost two months ago, as a fight against “a race towards the bottom” in the salaries of working people.
Birmingham City Council declared an important incident related to the Unite members strike on March 31 after estimating that around 17,000 tons of waste were not collected.
Kebede, who represents about half a million teachers and support staff, told the picket line: “We bring our solidarity to this picket because Birmingham Bin's strike is a strike of national importance.
“If a labor council, a labor council, can go out with the court with the courts of the salaries of these workers, then a Labor Government can leave with his with attacks against the rest of us.”
Stating that the Labor Government was “aligning attacks” in education and would be the first Labor Government since the 1970s in doing so, Kebede said: “We are here with Bin's men and workers today because we could be tomorrow.
“This solidarity … is showing what we can do when we join in our sectors and in our industries.
“Without the people here, not a single tooth would turn. It was not the councilors who were sitting in the City Council who were making the difference during the pandemic.”
For a strong applause of the protesters, Mr. Kebede continued: “They were the garbage workers who kept the streets clean. It was the teachers who continued in education, it was doctors and nurses.
“So we will be together as working people and say that we absolutely refuse to endure a career towards the bottom.
“Let's go back against this austerity government and ensure that our society can bloom.”
The general secretary of the drivers of the train drivers, Mick Whelan, thanked the trade unionists in the crowd for their support during the previous rail disputes and said he was proud to be with them.
Whelan said: “It is shame that we have to be here today in a laboratory controlled authority that talks about the salary of people who change without agreement.”
Carrying out the effects of 14 years of austerity on workers could not be right, Whelan said, he added: “I cannot articulate this dispute as well as the people involved in it, because they are their futures, they are their lives, they are their families.
“But we do know what we have seen in the past, if we don't join, they will defeat us. If we don't behave like a collective, they will hurt us.
“If we do not send the messages we need to see, they believe they can give us.
“We will be with you today, we will return tomorrow, we will return another day until you win.”
Kate Taylor, from the Birmingham branch of the NEU and also a national executive member of the Union, told the crowd: “This container strike is for all of us, it is for all the trade unionists. That is why, today of us, today we are here, they show solidarity and fight with you.”
Representatives of the Brigades of Fire Brigades and other groups also went to the crowd, including Artin Giles of the Peace and Justice Project of Jeremy Corbyn.
Offering the total solidarity of Mr. Corbyn and the project, Giles said: “I think we are really at a time when people realize that it does not matter if it is a red rosette or a blue rosette, the rich are enriched while the working class receives cuts to the services in which we all trust.
“And that is the case if we talk about schools, health clinics or garbage collection.”
Unite Pete Randall organizer told the picket that he believed that “the victory” in the dispute was not far away.
“It has been an absolute honor to be here with our members,” he said. “I remember the first day he was swinging at the top of Lifford Lane/Ebury Road.
“I have to meet the members. I can see him in his eyes. I can see how he feels for them. And that's what it is about: understanding from the perspective of a striker.
“I praise all the workers who are in the picket lines. This is how a union is seen.”
