To Break the Strike or not to Strike-break, that is the question: would leaving the rubbish in the house tantamount to strike-breaking or should residents leave as much rubbish around the bins as possible in solidarity with the rubbish workers?

Communal-bins in some streets have had sellotaped home-made notices asking residents to “Please don’t keep piling up bags around the bins” in only encourages rats ect. Some litter bins in the town centres of Brighton and Hove have been taped-up to stop rubbish over-flowing into the pavement. The street-sweepers are also on strike and local businesses are rallying to at least preserve a modicum of decency, health and safety on the streets by tidying up the detritus themselves.

 

Penny Thompson, Council Chief Executive, tells us in the letter in the Argus that “ We cannot legally employ replacement staff to do the work of striking workers.” It could be argued that this is a white lie or at least a cynical ploy to keep the unions on-board as the negotiations continue and take all reasonable steps to resolve the dispute. (See the Employment Relations Act 2004 s. 238 and protecting workers from being sacked unfairly.) Certainly, it would be political disaster for the Green Party to be seen to be strike-breaking in this case.

 

How many faces have to be saved before the strike gets over itself ?

 

It was perfectly acceptable to use agency staff for the special events over the week-end yet to not use any for general day-to-day rubbish collection. A Litter Abatement Order could be applied for by any concerned and financially stable resident at the magistrate’s court as long as the resident has formally notified the Council of the littering offence and given the Council time to comply with the duty to keep land clear of litter or refuse. It is not so unusal for one section of a council to complain about a different section of the same council.

 

(See http://archive.defra.gov.uk/environment/quality/local/legislation/cnea/documents/litter-refuse.pdf)

 

As J-P Sartre said, when confronted by the same dilemma : “Bad Faith never did anyone any harm in moderation .”