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Bin strike will go-ahead on Monday, say union

2:33pm Friday 6th November 2009 in


Three hundred refuse staff will strike on Monday, a union has confirmed.

The GMB said today the week-long walkout will start from 6am on Monday at Upper Hollingdean Road, Brighton.

Talks between the GMB and Brighton and Hove City Council have failed to avert the walkout which will see hundreds of thousands of bin bags left uncollected.

No refuse will be picked up from any of the city's 120,000 households.

The action follows months of unsuccessful talks between the union and the council.

The council wants to make around 800 workers take pay cuts of up to £8,000 each to address equality issues.

Comments(32)

DoWeHavTo says...
3:01pm Fri 6 Nov 09

They didn't pick up my rubbish yesterday or today. I guess I will have to add to environmental pollution and stick the rubbish in my car and go to the tip.

I hope they are picketing the tip - that way I can stare at them in a menacing way.

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pun master says...
3:07pm Fri 6 Nov 09

But surely they can't strike forever? And then won't they simply have more work to do, because we won't be able to fit two weeks worth of runnish in wheelie bins, and so they will have to load it by hand? Although we'll probably get fined by the council for fly tipping if we leave rubbish in our own front gardens or something!!

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pun master says...
3:08pm Fri 6 Nov 09

pun master wrote:
But surely they can't strike forever? And then won't they simply have more work to do, because we won't be able to fit two weeks worth of runnish in wheelie bins, and so they will have to load it by hand? Although we'll probably get fined by the council for fly tipping if we leave rubbish in our own front gardens or something!!
Obviously I mean't ruBBish, not runnish! See the stress they are putting me under already! Touch Type in a week for £50 my a*se!

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BrightonJax says...
3:48pm Fri 6 Nov 09

Looks like they started early, no collection on Wednesday.

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John Steed says...
4:47pm Fri 6 Nov 09

golden rule about industrial action, keep the customers on your side and make them sympathise with your cause,
In this case the union is scoring an own goal, work it out lads the posties have!

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Lady Smith says...
5:26pm Fri 6 Nov 09

This strike coincides with my street's recycling material collection (which is only fortnightly anyway). This means it won't be collected for a month - at the very least. I don't have a car, or access to one, so taking it to a recycling site is out of the question. When I first moved to Brighton, I paid Magpie £1 a week to collect cans, bottles, etc and there were no strikes, non-collections, etc. I understand that the council has to meet certain EU standards regarding cutting down on landfill and meeting recycling targets, or they (we) face hefty fines. Perhaps the recycling contract should go to Magpie, who pioneered recycling in this city?

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yorkie44 says...
6:05pm Fri 6 Nov 09

It started today in Woodingdean!

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Cgull says...
6:06pm Fri 6 Nov 09

It's not right asking people to take a £8000 pay cut. What have they done wrong?

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greeg says...
6:06pm Fri 6 Nov 09

They'll have a rotten xmas if they keep it up,they don't intend to and they won't.Bringing in Temps may focus the strikers thoughts,might make them realise they're not irreplaceable.

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BrightonHoveboy says...
6:10pm Fri 6 Nov 09

I trust this time they will not be driving around using OUR fuel and machinery.Also, I believe they are not insured to drive the vehicles unless they are at work. So, there will be no mobile protests using uninsured vehicles?

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chusan says...
6:24pm Fri 6 Nov 09

In our part of Woodingdean our collection is Thursday,it's now Friday evening, and there has been no collection,are the dustmen just practising for next week?

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rabmck says...
6:24pm Fri 6 Nov 09

the strike is a result of the council being unwilling to enter talks with our union officials to find a acceptable solution and please remember it is all the front line staff who have voted and are taking this official action we do not want to strike but please ask yourself what would you do if your employer simply said it was going to cut your pay by these amounts so dont blame the workers ask your local councillor to explain why they are doing this to council workers wages and then decide whos to blame for the strike and our bins will not be emptied either during the strike and we also pay council tax

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Fight Back says...
6:47pm Fri 6 Nov 09

The person who should sholder the blame is MARY MEARS. She's refused to enter talks ( probably too busy supporting her criminal family in the Bournemouth court ). The reason she hasn't is because this council wants to introduce bi-weekly rubbish collections. What a perfect way to start sneaking it in via the backdoor.

For once Councillor Mears, leave your arrogance at home and do some work for the people of this city - start talks and start them NOW !!!!!

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Just another Taxpayer says...
6:59pm Fri 6 Nov 09

I have already started using those big black bins which are on my way to the station.
They are great you don't have to recycle either

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kerryfee says...
7:16pm Fri 6 Nov 09

thought they were on strike already, passed 4 communal bins over flowing and with ripped open bags piled next to them, on my way to the station today.
As for pay cuts, I have taken a 15% cut this year as have a lot of people I know, a job in these times is better than nothing. What will these people do if they are just replaced for refusing to work? Thats what would happen in the private sector.

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abinman says...
7:23pm Fri 6 Nov 09

I’m really sorry to say but this dispute, us the bin men have with the council will not be over within one week!!! Number of weeks of disruption is in the planning and our work force will be working to rule whilst not on strike action until the council implements this equality pay deal in a fair manner. This pay deal can be solved without any reduction in wages from the council staff’s pay and without passing the cost to the council tax payer. The solution is simple the council need to borrow money off the government!! I have undertaken some research on other councils and have read that Liverpool City Council have asked the government for a loan in order to pay for the implementation the Single Status Agreement and have borrowed £35 million. As I understand from the article in the press that none of their workers lost any pay. It’s the councils blunder so the council should have to pay for the equal pay legislation not YOU or not US. They have had over 12 years to save the money to pay for the supposedly historic single status agreement.

If the council see no alternative and reduce our wage, we will work to rule which we can do legally, which will mean eventually the council tax payer will be footing the cost. On average 20 more lorries will be needed, 20 LGV drivers, 40 operatives, another manager or two or maybe three (come on it is the council ) and more vehicle maintenance technicians . A new depot will be needed to house all the new staff and equipment and this is just in the refuse and recycling department alone and I haven’t included the other departments affected by the pay cuts. To build a new depot would cost the council on average £30,000,000 and then it would have extra diesel costs as the travel between the waste transfer station to the new depot, resulting in more lost man hours and the list will go on and on with the extra costs needed to run a satisfactory operation. The result would mean millions, millions and more millions of pounds worth of extra revenue needed by the council every year and who will pay for that??? I don’t think I need to tell you!! So the cost will be eventually passed on to you as well and we would also have a wage cut!!

I feel that our employers are looking for the easy short term solution and haven’t looked at this agreement in great detail at all. If a bin man can foresee all this doom ahead perhaps I should be paid £170,000 a year :) and not the 17k which I am on now, which will be soon 13 - 14K a year.

I need to get my point across so none of us need to suffer in the long run as I feel passionate about this matter :)

I would also like to say thank you to the majority of residents that are supporting our campaign and hopefully we will back to our normal duties sooner rather than later!!!

We do not want another Leeds situation where the staff have been out on strike for their 9th week causing all kinds of health problems, which then put the over stretched NHS under more pressure especially in the winter months when a swine flu epidemic is expected.

So sorry once again but our familes and homes are at risk, we need our pay!!

SINGLE STATUS = SIMPLE SOLUTION

So BHCC please go and speak to Mr Brown he can help!!!! and we can go back to work !!!!!!

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TheInsider says...
7:25pm Fri 6 Nov 09

Why haven't the council announced what is happening and explained how residents can recycle for themselves and when the refuse will be collected.
Not a word. Where is the council press release. Either they haven't bothered to think that we might want to know what is happening or The Argus have lost it.
Come on, some of us will be happy to claim a rebate on our council tax for failure to provide services and we are happy to take our rubbish to the tip ourselves.

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jondix says...
7:48pm Fri 6 Nov 09

The council have removed from the service eleven vehicles and nearly sixty operatives,could this be the reason collections are not being made,the staff are expected to complete unachievable targets sometimes waiting until lunchtime for a vehicle to be released from the workshops.These workers have to work blooming hard under extreme pressure in a physically demanding role,let the critics above come into the yard and give it just one day and get informed on just what it is like at the sharp end,and to rub salt in,they want to SLASH wages. Reading some of the negative uninformed guff above makes you so angry when you know what pain the workforce is going through,they obviously have a massive shortage of grey matter to state such rubbish,have they got jobs I doubt it. In this industry you work a full day with as much effort as any building labourer, but they want to pay basic wage.So all you knockers get behind your council staff they deserve your support not your self indulgent spiteful uninformed drivel,they are sensitive hardworking folk trying to earn a living. It costs to strike,the consequence is their families going without while they defend their livelihood.

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Hovist says...
8:45pm Fri 6 Nov 09

The current re-cycling collection in our road in Hove is out of sync with some of the residents...It used to be possible to put stuff out before going to work etc but now if you don't leave it out overnight (so the cardboard gets soggy if it rains) it won't be collected as they now come at the crack of dawn...

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abinman says...
9:18pm Fri 6 Nov 09

To my last post Liverpool City Council borrowed a sum off the government believed to be up to £35,000,000 but it was to pay for the equality pay claims compensation for under paying the lower paid staff for a number of years and not to implement the single status agreement. To my allergation of the Liverpool workers not losing a penny, they actually gained with 1-3 % pay rise, they are having a salary re-grading in April 2010. To achieve the pay rise better performance targets will have to be met. The staff say these targets are realistic.

The Average Cleansing operative earns 25k a year in Liverpool!!

I know this is not Liverpool but we are happy with our 17K a year or well at least i am!!

I as i believe at the moment Wealden District Council compensated their workers with extra holiday entitlement as they work a 40 hour week and instead of reducing their hours to 37 the workers got 3 days extra holiday per year, they they earn just a little less than us but not by much.

A few councils are trying to use the single status agreement as a cost cutting exercise, in my eyes just like Brighton and Hove and Leeds and so did Liverpool but Liverpool pulled a U turn.

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TheInsider says...
9:28pm Fri 6 Nov 09

abinman, the points you raise are interesting and I am sure most residents would support you, but over the past ten years, the binmen in the city have gone on strike even when one of them broke a nail. Mark Turner would get his face in the press more often than Barrymore. We don't know what to believe anymore or whether to support you. The GMB have been very, very active in the waste indsutry in Brighton for more than ten years, so why was this issue not dealt with and hammered out over the past few years.
Residents are baffled and to be honest, I am not sure that there will be support when cra* is piled high on the streets. The action will be hurting the wrong people. The council will wait for the tide of opinion to turn and then steamroller the whole workforce.

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jyan says...
10:24pm Fri 6 Nov 09

Sack the lot of them and start again.

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chrisbrighton says...
10:35pm Fri 6 Nov 09

If the pay is so bad, resign and see how many applicants there will be. I am sure that the Council will have no trouble finding hundreds of applicants in the current economic climate

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Man With No Name says...
10:44pm Fri 6 Nov 09

No collection here today (nothing unusual though to be honest)

From what I can see, the only thing bin men are adept in is blocking both lanes of traffic with the most arrogant use of a large vehicle possible, at the same time displaying all the speed of a 3 toed Sloth in a half ar*ed attempt to pick up some (not usually all) of the rubbish and then randomly throwing the containers in any direction they see fit.

How many of us do you think are overjoyed in our jobs?! We all have the same choice, get on with it or find another job!

sw post-miss - rather ironic seeing as they cancelled their strike.

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coach03 says...
1:52am Sat 7 Nov 09

Saltdean; Friday. No refuse collected today on our usual collection day and, somewhat bizarrely, the re-cycling truck only took HALF of the re-cycling and left the other half where it was??

Security word (I kid you not) :
sure-rise .....

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Acheron says...
4:34am Sat 7 Nov 09

I'd have slightly more sympathy if it wasn't for the fact that yesterday (Friday) the GMB hadn't come out and said that even if a deal had been struck it was too late to stop the strike action. Comments like that do little to give the union a positive image and thier local leadership need to face some questions about what their real motives are with comments like that.

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HelenL says...
6:18am Sat 7 Nov 09

To the headline writer: the hyphen in 'go-ahead' is wrong.

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greeg says...
9:45am Sat 7 Nov 09

HelenL wrote:
To the headline writer: the hyphen in 'go-ahead' is wrong.
You're right.But,you've made yourself look like you're only guessing by not explaining why it's wrong.You can explain now.

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puddings3112 says...
6:42pm Sat 7 Nov 09

the striking binmen will be the same abusive lowlifes who when asked why they hadn't collected my recycling (sorted and separated the night before) replied it was because 'it contains f***ing not for recycling rubbish you f***ing t**t' - someone had thrown a ribena carton into the black bin (missing its lid because the bin men had thrown it away the first week we had the bins).
Sack the lot of them, put the contract out for proper tendering this time (rather than awarding it to the same mo and changing the name every few months) and employ people with clear terms of employment including customer service rules

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rabmck says...
6:43pm Sat 7 Nov 09

Acheron wrote:
I'd have slightly more sympathy if it wasn't for the fact that yesterday (Friday) the GMB hadn't come out and said that even if a deal had been struck it was too late to stop the strike action. Comments like that do little to give the union a positive image and thier local leadership need to face some questions about what their real motives are with comments like that.
What the union are saying is simply as it was friday evening it would not be possible to call all its members together as it was the weekend so it would not be possible to avert the strike starting on Monday however if the council came up with a offer that could be put to the workforce the union would organise a mass meeting (asap) with its members and remember it would be the union members who would decide if the offer was acceptable not the union leaders they purley negotiate on the members behalf it was the workforce that voted by94% in favour of strike action and this then gave the union the mandate to call official action so dont blame the union for doing what its members clearly voted for

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rabmck says...
8:17pm Sat 7 Nov 09

BrightonHoveboy wrote:
I trust this time they will not be driving around using OUR fuel and machinery.Also, I believe they are not insured to drive the vehicles unless they are at work. So, there will be no mobile protests using uninsured vehicles?
Brightonhove boy please remember every one of the drivers that you thinks was using your fuel pay council tax as well so they where then using their own fuel if we look at it as you do as for uninsured vehicles didnt you see them all in their (BHCC) uniforms suggests to me they were working but your right on the last point we will not be driving around in the vehicles because we have no intention of collecting your or anyones refuse/ recycling including our own or sweeping our streets until this council come forward to the negotiating table with our union officials and put together a offer that is accceptable to this workforce

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rabmck says...
8:23pm Sat 7 Nov 09

greeg wrote:
They'll have a rotten xmas if they keep it up,they don't intend to and they won't.Bringing in Temps may focus the strikers thoughts,might make them realise they're not irreplaceable.
Greeg must register my disgust in your comments on this article as a fellow scot why dont you ask the workers at Glasgow city council how they implemented it up the road because I can tell you they didnt take 1 penny from the workers up the road and they will not get one penny from the workers here in Brighton either and they will not bring in temps as that would be in breach of employment law

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