The 2021 Brighton bin strike was

labour strike Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike in British English, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became co ...

by bin workers in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The workers, represented by the GMB are striking in protest against changes of duties from the Brighton and Hove City Council. The strike was over by 20 October 2021. At the time of the ballot GMB stated that the action centred on the refusal of councillors to "intervene and settle an ongoing dispute around unilateral imposed daily changes and removal of drivers from long standing rounds without process, by management whim".

Background

Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority area, ceremonially in East Sussex, England. There are multiple villages alongside the seaside resorts of Brighton and Hove in the district. It is administe ...

had bin strikes in 2001, 2004, 2013 and 2014. Over the last 25 years, in addition to official strike action, there has been much unrest leading to 'wildcat' strikes and unofficial industrial action, including following the 'modernisation' plans introduced by the council in 2018

Strike

With a 79.6% turnout, the vote among the workers was unanimous in favour of striking. The strike would last for two weeks, until 18 October. On 5 October, the strike began, with the GMB releasing a statement saying that "constant one-sided enforced driver removals, changes of duties, crew variations and alterations in plans around the collection of dropped work has had a detrimental impact on the HGV driver's health and well-being at the city's Hollingdean Depot, and this very strong ballot outcome is a clear message to their employers that enough is enough." On 6 October, the Labour councillors organised a meeting with the union. However, the union stated that nothing concrete had been agreed upon. That day, the council also stated that they would not be able to hire temporary bin workers to replace the strikers, both for legal reasons and due to the ongoing shortage of

large goods vehicle A large goods vehicle (LGV), or heavy goods vehicle (HGV), in the European Union (EU) is any lorry with a Gross combined weight rating, gross combination mass (GCM) of over . Sub-category N2 is used for vehicles between 3,500 kg and and N ...

-qualified drivers. On 8 October, the union served notice for an additional two weeks of strikes, to begin on 21 October. On 11 October, negotiations between the workers and the council broke down, with the council accusing the union of walking on talks without hearing the full details of the proposed offer. The union, however, stated that the offer had been lower than the previous offer. Controversy erupted after Conservative councillor Joe Miller proclaimed that "I hate to refer to Maggie Thatcher, but this is a similar situation - you can't negotiate with terrorists." After council leader

Phélim Mac Cafferty Phélim Mac Cafferty (born 15 February 1979) is a former Green Party of England and Wales politician and the former leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, in Brighton and Hove, England. He served as a councillor for the Brunswick and Adelaide ...

denounced the comment as unacceptable, Miller withdrew it, but did not make a formal apology. On 12 October, the union announced that the strike action would be paused for three days, from 18 to 21 October, before resuming. That day, deputy council chair Jamie Lloyd released a statement calling the build-up of waste on city pavements "an appalling situation" and said that meeting the union's requests would lead to "catastrophic cuts in other services." On 13 October, the city council decided to call in an independent mediator if negotiations broke down. The GMB stated that it would not continue negotiating until the workers received a formal apology from Miller for his comments. The BBC further reported that the council had estimated that a pay raise would cost from £0.5m to £14.2m, mostly due to council staff in other departments demanding a similar pay raise. On 16 October, the union released a statement saying that "we had an agreement at 6:25 last night but the chief exec and his team have taken that away." On 17 October, the city council announced that it had hired private waste collectors to pick up bins, citing safety concerns, both due to the piles of rubbish blocking pedestrian pavements and due to a number of fires in communal bins having been reported in the city in the previous days. In 2023, an independent KC report looked into unrest and bullying and harassment issues at Cityclean, they reported that in relation to the 2021 strike action:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brighton bin strike, 2021 2021 labor disputes and strikes Labour disputes in England 2021 in England 21st century in Brighton and Hove October 2021 in the United Kingdom

Background

Strike

See also

References