On June 5, around 400 Birmingham bin workers returned an overwhelming vote to continue their strike in defence of jobs and in opposition to sweeping pay cuts by the Labour-run city council. But the strikers continue to be isolated by the Unite union under General Secretary Sharon Graham as the strike-breaking operation intensifies, backed by the Starmer Labour government.

Unite is continuing talks at conciliation service ACAS with the council over a sellout deal that will lead to the elimination of the safety-critical Waste Reduction and Collection Officer (WRCO) role, with refuse drivers facing a similar downgrade and pay cuts of up to £8,000.

The World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) spoke with former Coventry bin workers about their own bitter experience fighting the city’s Labour authority in 2022, which deployed a strike-breaking operation through its wholly owned subsidiary, Tom White Waste.

The seven-month strike was broken through a coordinated effort by Coventry council and Unite. The WSWS exposed Unite’s sellout deal, opposing pseudo-left groups such as the Socialist Workers Party who acted as apologists for the union bureaucracy.

The former bin workers in Coventry provide further evidence of how Unite collaborated in a roll back of terms and conditions, mass redundancies and unsafe working practices.

This testimony has been provided to arm their Birmingham colleagues and encourage them to take their dispute out of hands of the Unite national leadership and form a rank-and-file committee to wage a unified struggle of the working class against the Starmer government.

Names have been withheld to protect against victimisation.

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WSWS: Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said the July 2022 deal ending the seven-month Coventry waste drivers’ strike was “a fair and just pay award” in a press release which claimed “victory”. She cited a 12.9 percent pay rise. How does this stack up against reality?

Coventry workers: It wasn’t a straightforward pay increase—it came with major strings attached. The 12.9 percent figure was conditional on weekend working. The agreement applied only if drivers worked “45 weekends on a rota basis,” based on pay increments rising from £14.63 to £16.53 per hour.

The settlement reversed longstanding terms and conditions in management’s favour. A £4,000 lump sum was offered to end the 1999 agreement to extend the working year from 51 to 52 weeks, making work between Christmas and New Year mandatory. On July 22, Unite Regional Coordinating Officer Frank Keogh told collectors Christmas working would be introduced regardless of whether they accepted the lump sum.

From the outset, the agreement was used to implement job cuts through Early Retirement and Voluntary Redundancy. The new terms only applied, as it stated, “if you are remaining with, or returning to work.” Redundancies followed swiftly—38 HGV Grade 2 drivers and Senior Crew were gone within a month. In 2023, the council admitted this exceeded its original target. The aim was to replace the established workforce with Tom White Waste personnel, the strike breaking force deployed by the Labour council.

The council explained, “We decided to accept all applications [for redundancy] in line with the agreement we had made with Unite the Union,” necessitating positions being filled “with employees of Tom White Waste and fixed-term employees.”

Also, there were at least eight temporary waste drivers who had been on strike throughout the dispute who were told by Unite that they would fight to make them permanent as part a final deal. They were got rid of after a month of the dispute ending.

The new working practices introduced breached health and safety for collectors who had been blocked by Unite from taking strike action with waste drivers.

Under “Wider Changes,” the agreement proposed a joint union-council review of “task and finish”—a practice which allowed us to leave once daily rounds were complete by 3pm. This was no luxury. Collectors routinely shift 30 tonnes of waste and walk 12 miles daily. The “review” actually led to a textbook example of fire-and-rehire in March 2024: bin workers at Whitley depot were given 90 days’ notice to accept the end of task and finish or take redundancy. Unite’s proposal for a compensatory lump sum was dismissed by management. Though a strike mandate was secured from drivers and collectors, no action was taken, Unite rolled over again.

WSWS: How were collectors blocked from joining the 2022 strike?

Coventry workers: In September 2021, a mass meeting of collectors at Whitley depot voted unanimously to strike against Christmas working and to defend conditions. The majority of the 80 collectors were present, including probationary staff fearful of being sacked but determined to take a stand. Grade 3 collectors earned around £11 per hour, with a number living in bedsits or house shares because they could not afford proper housing. Yet they were sidelined.

Unite never formally rejected the mandate but sabotaged it through a whispering campaign led by some driver convenors who labelled the collectors “too weak” and already paid their “real value”—a divisive, elitist stance. Isn’t a union supposed to unify workers?

On January 31, the drivers began their all-out strike while Tom White Waste was brought in to break it. Unite only advised collectors to raise individual Section 44 safety concerns in relation to working under the scab contractor. Management rejected them. Two-thirds of collectors went off sick, but their shop stewards were redeployed from waste collection to street cleaning duties—effectively barring them from representation.

Unite delayed a formal ballot for collectors until May, with results in mid-June showing a narrow No vote. Members reported not receiving ballots. The effort was tokenistic.

WSWS: What was the role of Unite’s national leadership?

Coventry workers: Coventry Council’s director of HR, Susanna Newing summed it up on a BBC Radio 4 programme, “How Strikes Come to an End” broadcast in January 2023. She said, “it took an awfully long time for our voices to be heard”—meaning the council’s—adding that it took four months for any “meaningful dialogue”, which only changed when Unite “sent a national officer.” Newing said this was to accept the deal which was essentially unchanged from what had been rejected.

National Lead Officer Onay Kasab was parachuted in. We could tell he knew nothing about the sector. In the end, drivers finally voted to accept the deal as they could see the union would fight for nothing more. The agreement was announced by Unite on July 29. Collectors had no say. Kasab signed off both agreements.

Unite shop stewards for collectors and the two Unite corporate reps on the council refused to sign on the grounds that it breached health and safety. The agreement stated, “for the avoidance of doubt”, that there would be “the handling of two bins” at a time, the collection of bins with “lids raised”; “all side waste” (a danger because of hazards, e.g., hypodermic needles); and “Handling and servicing bins irrespective of the handles face at point of presentation”, meaning collectors having to drag bins at awkward angles. This was a recipe for repetitive strain injuries.

We were being told to do things we’ve never done in the past such as taking bins with raised lids. This was particularly hazardous, it increased the likelihood of blockages with waste falling onto the bin lifting equipment on the waste trucks which would need to be cleared manually. This risked a collector triggering the sensors and becoming trapped on the lifting equipment. To avoid this, we were meant to take the excess bags out of the bin and then reload and empty, creating more work. This introduced another risk from hazardous waste, with collectors having to put their hands in bins with no proper protection from needles and sharps.

WSWS: On January 19, 2023 a collector, 60-year-old David Carpenter, was crushed to death after his coat became entangled in the bin lifting equipment and he was dragged into the hopper of a waste truck. The coroner’s inquest concluded on April 22, 2024 that this was an “accident”, but a “foreseeable” incident. The Council’s training and risk assessments were criticised. It issued a prevention of future death (PFD) report concerning the truck manufacturer, Denis Eagle Lt, that the vehicles could have been safer.

Coventry workers: The death of David Carpenter happened within six months of the agreement, which we warned Onay Kasab and other Unite officials would lead to a catastrophe.

Dave was very experienced and highly regarded by his colleagues. It was not a lack of training, but a result of the unsafe practices railroaded through by Unite and the council. If you are having to take all insecure waste and conduct other practices contrary to safe manual handling procedures, you are placed under extreme pressure to work in an environment that has been made unsafe.

Dave leaned across to clear some waste off the hoist (bin lifting equipment) which engaged the sensors. His coat became caught, and he was lifted into the hopper. He did try and press the emergency stop but they said at the inquest it was not in an “ideal” place. It was separated by a glass screen so when he reached around, he could not fully press the button.

That same morning Dave had raised a complaint via Unite against a supervisor over his workload, it was mentioned at the inquest. This was against one of the Tom White supervisors—They had all been employed on council contracts following the strike busting operation.

The council were not held to account, nor were those responsible in Unite for signing away our health and safety rights.

We don’t want to see our fellow bin workers in Birmingham suffer the consequences of another supposed “win” under Sharon Graham. The national officials are not concerned about the frontline. They will sleep easy while our terms and conditions are trashed. It is all about managing the transition at our expense. We need to take back the power to defend our rights and jobs.