By Andrew Thompson: Chair Unite CGL 7007 WM Branch
The victimised Unite steward has been reinstated; all the 105, grade 3 operatives will retain their grade 3 status; there will be no review of the service for at least 15 months and any review will be undertaken by a joint committee of management and workers.
The only two concessions made by the workforce are the five-day week and the extra duties. However, there is to be no increase in the working hours and the extra duties involve maximising income from recycling, these are nothing more than the workforce offered earlier this year in an attempt to find an early resolution to the dispute.
This resolution of the dispute at the 11th hour before the resumption of the court case, is a humiliating climb down for Stella Manzie, the vastly overpaid interim Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council, who clearly thought she could pursue her ant-iunion program
with impunity.
It is unfortunate that the elected Labour Councillors did not have the backbone that the workers, their Convenor Richard Beddows and the interim Regional Secretary of Unite the Union, Howard Beckett, showed when dealing with Manzie. Otherwise the Birmingham public would not have been £6 million worse off!
However, given that the deal is only for 15 months, the workforce will be vigilant in looking for any attempt to claw back their hard-earned victory in 2019. Other workers in the council will be emboldened by this vindication of militancy. The agents of austerity have been served notice -the working class of Birmingham have had enough!
December 18, 2017
