Hundreds of bin workers and supporters forced a refuse depot in Birmingham to shut down, blocking vehicles from leaving the premises on Friday, reports Adam Yosef

Unite members picketing outside the depot as part of their continuing all-out strike were joined on Friday by trade unionists from across the country, who had descended on the Lifford Lane depot in Kings Norton – one of the three main council depots in the city – to show their support for Brum’s striking refuse workers.

Triggered by a dispute between the council and Unite the union, the industrial action has resulted in huge piles of rubbish and bins overflowing across the city for over eight weeks.

Billed as a “megapicket” organised by Strike Map and supported by a wide range of organisations, unionised workers and supporters had travelled from Scotland, Leeds, Bristol, Manchester and London early this morning to stand in solidarity with Birmingham City Council employees taking strike action. It was reminiscent of the mass rally that shut down the Coventry Amazon warehouse in 2023.

Lifford Lane refuse collector Aaron told Counterfire he was “devastated” by the situation and how much “financial stress it’s caused me and my family at home”.

“Basically, I came into work one day in January. I was told that I’m going to be losing £400 a month, every month forever, so it wasn’t just me who was told that, it was the majority of the workforce, so now we’re out here on strike.

“Fair play to Unite, they’ve been having our back from the get-go, so appreciate them for that. However, we’re just waiting on negotiations now and it seems like they’re taking a hell of a long time. I mean, the sooner they get sorted, the quicker we can get back to work and get this city back up to the standards that it should be.”

Aaron is determined to return to his job but wants long-term employment security to prevent the current situation arising again in the near future.

“I wanna go back into that job knowing that there is a framework set for at least the next 20 years of my career,” he said.

Speaking to Counterfire, ​​Unite national lead officer Onay Kasab said the strike was about “stopping austerity being imposed on refuse workers”.

“Today’s rally is to support our members working in the refuse service and I want to be really clear about this, we’re not asking for extra money, we’re not asking for improvements in terms and conditions, we’re defending pay.”

Kasab told us negotiations between the council and Unite appeared to have taken a turn for the worse rather than moving towards a fair deal.

“The dispute began because the employer decided it was going to delete posts and in the middle of negotiations it also decided it was going to cut pay for another 200 workers as well, so this really is about defending pay and conditions.”

He added it was absolutely important for the union to come out on top as a “defeat here would be a defeat for every single local authority worker across the country.”

Despite the council affirming it was “continuing on with the contingency plan that has so far cleared up 43,484 tonnes since the start of April”, uncollected refuse has been stacking up across a number of city streets, amid residents complaining of rats, putrid odours and an ongoing risk to public health.

As people continued to picket Lifford Lane earlier today, speakers including trade union officials Daniel Kebede (NEU), Pete Randle (Unite), Mick Whelan (ASLEF) and Steve Wright (FBU) addressed the crowd. They were joined by local residents and community leaders.

“It says something about our leadership here in Birmingham City Council, that they’re resorting to lies and smears to demonise the very same workers that they said ‘let’s clap, they’re heroes’ in Covid,” former city councillor and NHS worker Salma Yaqoob told those in attendance.”

“This is a battle now,” she added. “We are seeing huge pay rises for bosses, for senior leaders and [for] the same people saying ‘there is no money, there is no alternative’, but that is a lie.

“It’s not just a four-legged rat that Brummies need to be worried about, it’s the two-legged rat that in the corridors of power, in the Council House and in Parliament, and we are here to say enough is enough!”

Artin Giles from the Peace and Justice Project relayed support from MP Jeremy Corbyn and told the rally, “We can safely say not a single truck leaves Lifford Lane with the sign off of the Birmingham bin workers.

“We need to see more of this. Wouldn’t it be good if we went to Perry Barr to the Atlas depot in the next few weeks?

“Wouldn’t it be good if mega pickets like these were repeated at strikes around the county? And wouldn’t it be good to have tens of thousands of people at the People’s Assembly demonstration on 7 June in London?”

Jae Robinson from the Birmingham Unite Community branch told Counterfire that the blame for the latest strikes dragging on lay squarely with council leaders.

“The bin workers are being threatened and bullied and abused by the council, and this is not just the bin workers, it’s actually their families as well who are going to be impacted.”

Criticising the Labour leadership in government, Robinson had harsh words for PM Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner as well as Birmingham City Council chiefs, specifically accusing the Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport of hypocrisy.

“Majid Mahmood who’s a councillor in Hodge Hill, which is the most deprived council area in the whole of the country for food and fuel deprivation… so he is getting £50,000 of Birmingham residents’ money and that’s on top of his wages as a solicitor,” she claimed.

“And I think he’s got a bloody cheek to expect bin workers who are under his remit to take a cut of £8,000! That’s £8,000 that would pay their mortgages, that’s £8,000 to pay their fuel bills, £8,000 to feed their families, it’s not on, it’s unacceptable.”

The mood on the megapicket among both strikers and supporters was one of defiance and there was a clear determination to continue to build mass solidarity with the strike. There might be more megapickets called, a rally outside the City Council when they next meet on 20 May, and there was a drive to mobilise in London for the 7 June People’s Assembly demonstration.