WITHIN Coventry and Warwickshire, two acrimonious disputes are taking place involving refuse workers who are members of Unite the Union and their local government employers.

In Coventry, the bin lorry HGV drivers have now entered their 21st week of strike action, after coming out on a wintery January 5. 

In Rugby, the refuse drivers, carriers and street cleansers took strike action starting on April 26, originally for two weeks, but management intransigence led to the strikers extending the dispute until at least the middle of June.

Visiting the picket lines you can only be impressed by the spirit, determination and solidarity of the strikers. 

But that is not the only thing they have in common. Both have been subject to bullying and intimidation by management, both say working conditions have significantly deteriorated and both have grave concerns about health and safety.

Talking to strikers on the Coventry and Rugby picket lines, it is clear that the disputes have been a long time coming and, although pay is at the heart of the strikes, there is much more that has driven the workers into the fight. 

In both local authorities investment in the services has not kept pace with the growth in housing and demand for the service. 

One striker told me that for years they have found notes waiting for them, practically every day, about more properties that need the refuse service and increases in the number of bins to be emptied.  

This means the rounds have been massively increased and, with it, an expectation to work longer and longer hours. 

Another striker said that if not all the properties had been visited on a particular day, management would send them back out or expect them to add the “missed properties” to their already impossible rounds the next working day.

The strikers are convinced the Coventry and Rugby managers are in cahoots and working together to break the strike, although Coventry’s Labour councillors have gone to extreme lengths to beat the workers.  

Coventry City Council borrowed £15 million in 2020 to buy a local waste company called Tom White. Originally the company was bought to provide commercial waste services, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that the Labour council had a longer game plan, which was to transfer refuse services to the non-unionised and lower-paid arm’s-length company. 

The Coventry dispute has been a bitter strike from the start. Managers have put enormous energy into press and social media in order to spread lies and deceit about the drivers, claiming they were paid £50,000 a year. 

These are workers who start on £22,000 and after 11 years can reach an annual wage of £27,000.  

To their total disgrace, the Labour councillors and their managers brought in scab drivers who they are paying between £19 and £26 per hour, moved the refuse trucks to Tom White depot and have spent to date over £4 million on agency workers, hiring refuse trucks and setting up temporary drop-off locations where residents can leave their recycling.

These strikes have raised serious questions about whether voting Labour makes any difference at all. In Coventry, Labour is in control, in Rugby it’s the Tories. 

But the only difference in approach is that the Labour councillors have been far more aggressive in their attacks on the strikers. 

Labour councillors have suspended a senior union representative and have had no compunction about calling on the police to break up community-led protests outside the Tom White Ltd depot. 

It is estimated by Unite the Union that settling the Coventry dispute would have cost £300,000, so clearly the Labour council has other motives if it is prepared to spend £4m up to now to break the strike.

In Rugby the strikers have met with similar media campaigns issuing misleading claims about pay and conditions. A Rugby striker told me that the behaviour of the managers has been appalling, offering workers loans rather than a pay rise or suggesting they reduce their pension contributions so as to increase their disposable wages.

Both sets of workers have their own particular grievances. Rugby refuse workers are reputedly the worst-paid bin workers and street cleansers in the country and in Coventry workers have been offered substantially worse conditions, with cuts in overtime rates, a requirement for a longer working week, including weekends, and relocation of the refuse depot to outside the city.

There has been substantial support in Coventry and Rugby from Unite nationally, Coventry Trade Union Council and from the wider community.  

In fact while standing on the line with workers there’s been much tooting of Hornsby passing motorists in support. 

In Coventry, a community-based group consisting of activists has launched a door-to-door campaign, protested outside the Tom White depot and produced leaflets making the bin lorry drivers’ case. 

Unite the Union has suspended its members from among Coventry Labour councillors from the union.

Both sets of strikers have received donations to their strike fund from unions and trades councils from across the country and there have been lots of visits to the picket line and expressions of support.

These strikers are leading the struggle for better pay in local government. Defeat for them will mean the position of other local authority employees will get very much worse. Victory holds out the promise of better pay for all. 

The labour movement as a whole should honour these badly paid refuse workers of Coventry and Rugby. They can hold their heads up in pride, while Coventry’s Labour councillors and the Tories of Rugby should hang theirs in shame.