‘Give councils more money’ Independent readers weigh in on Birmingham bin strikes | EUROtoday

The ongoing bin strike in Birmingham has sparked a fierce public debate about council mismanagement, union energy, and who ought to bear the fee when native providers collapse.

With garbage piling up on the streets for weeks and fears of a public well being disaster rising, Independent readers have shared sturdy views on the basis causes and the way in which ahead.

When we requested on your views, many blamed years of presidency underfunding and austerity, accusing successive Conservative administrations of stripping native councils of the sources they should perform.

Others argued that Labour-led Birmingham City Council should take duty for monetary missteps, together with equal pay liabilities and poor funding selections that left it bankrupt.

Some readers expressed sympathy for the refuse staff, noting the heavy and unappealing nature of the job, whereas others questioned the equity of the present pay construction and accused unions like Unite of being rigid.

Meanwhile, the thought of army involvement amid the strikes proved divisive. In our ballot, 42 per cent stated public well being should come first and backed military assist, whereas 33 per cent insisted this isn’t the military’s job, and 20 per cent stated it needs to be restricted to excessive instances.

Here’s what you needed to say:

Decades of hurt

Watching the information earlier and the highest three tales:

The compensation for all these Sub-Postmasters – while I concede that has been happening for a very long time – for 14 years we had the Tories failing to behave.

The bin assortment in Birmingham – while I completely concede that councils up and down the nation are at greatest feckless and ineffective – we must always do not forget that, beginning with Cameron, each single council had their funding lower by at the least 20 per cent.

Scunthorpe metal works – have we so quickly forgotten the Tories’ asset-stripping of the nation?

Don’t misconstrue – I’m no fan of Starmer or the Labour celebration – it is the Tories I detest for all of the hurt they’ve finished to this nation, hurt that can take many years to undo.

TomSnout

A heavy, soiled job

This dispute goes additional again than pay cuts.

Years in the past, the unions for a number of the lowest-paid council employees (primarily feminine) got here up with wheeze to get their members a hefty pay rise with compensation for “lost” again pay. They claimed that their members had been doing equal work to the highest-paid unskilled handbook staff – the binmen (primarily males) – and took the declare by means of the courts to get a ruling of their favour.

The enormous compensation invoice bankrupted or almost bankrupted most councils, which did not have the cash to offer everybody the pay rise they demanded. So the one viable different to adjust to the ruling was to equalise pay charges by slicing the pay of the binmen, sparking off the inevitable industrial disputes – that is how we obtained to right here.

But engaged on the bins is a heavy, soiled job that may influence well being, and few would wish to do it, which is why it has at all times attracted enhanced pay charges. I believe that is recognised by most individuals.

Maybe the answer is to get the employees who claimed to be doing equal work to get the gloves on and begin clearing the piles of garbage themselves?

MellieC

Floodgates

Unite’s rigid place is: “This is a pay cut.”

Yes. It is a pay lower. Birmingham Council is bankrupt, and it was bankrupted by a Labour council. Cuts in spending are regrettable, however unavoidable.

There can be a “floodgates” argument right here. If Unite wins this spherical, will probably be unattainable to chop spending in every other space of the council’s actions. A precedent could have been set. So it isn’t a case of “It’s only 17 jobs, give them the money”. It is concerning the council’s proper to handle its funds for 58,000 staff.

So the stakes are certainly excessive, for each side. But Birmingham taxpayers deserve a break. They are usually not prepared to offer Unite a clean cheque.

SteveHill

Creation of latest roles

The final strike was in 2017. The council agreed to the creation of a brand new function that pays as much as £8k greater than the binmen’s wage. This new function doesn’t truly exist – the boys getting paid the additional cash do the identical job as those that don’t. But it ended the strike, so for some time issues had been OK, although to me the union is letting down the 2 members of every bin crew who don’t get the additional.

The council is dealing with authorized instances from different staff who have a look at the Grade 3 job description and say that their jobs match or exceed it, and they’re solely on Grade 2 pay. So the council may face enormous prices if it doesn’t eliminate the Grade 3 function. Hence, this strike.

Is Unite supporting the claims of the Grade 2 staff, or is it solely within the binmen?

avidmidlandsreader

Sour investments

Another cause why councils are working out of money is that they had been allowed to take out huge loans to purchase property investments over the past 15 years – when they didn’t have a clue what they had been doing. Many of those investments have turned bitter and have bankrupted some councils. Is it a shock when the general public is questioning the competence of governments and councils?

Why can’t high-calibre folks be appointed to positions of duty to make well-informed and wise selections?

Mat

Funding demise spiral

Local authorities are in a funding demise spiral and have been for years… and successive governments appear blissful to easily ignore the difficulty, whereas slicing monetary assist to native authorities to the bone.

Ultimately, that is the federal government’s duty – give councils extra money to allow them to assist very important providers. Is an additional 10 miles of latest motorway value greater than getting a metropolis’s garbage collected?

Priorities once more… and we merely can’t be seen to offer in to the unions, irrespective of how worthy the pay declare.

Who suffers? Us. Who will foot the invoice? Us. Who will stroll away smiling, completely unaffected by any of this? Politicians.

captaintripps

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