Labour so rubbish over bins strikes

IT MAKES A MOCKERY OF PLEDGE TO 'MAKE WORK PAY'

- With Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite the Union

THE Birmingham bin strike has just entered its sixth month. It could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Workers are being told to take up to £8,000 worth of pay cuts while councillors' allowances increase and government commissioners — brought in to control the council - earn an eye-watering £1,200 a day.

In the last six months, not one Labour politician, either locally or nationally, has bothered to find out about the state of negotiations or even join them.

Not one. This, in a Labour-controlled council and with commissioners directly accountable to the Labour government to oversee decisions - a council that has spent tens of millions on a failed IT system, and many more other failed projects, and which is now asking workers to pay the price.

These workers, like so many others now, are scratching their heads and asking, "What the hell is Labour doing?" Instead of rolling up her sleeves and finding out what is going on, Angela Rayner - who has direct authority in the government for the commissioners - has not spoken to one single worker who is on strike.

It seems she's too busy holding photo opportunities with agency staff, using Thatcher's laws to try to break the strike. Workers aren't stupid, they can see what is going on.

These drivers are being told to accept their wage cuts or get out. Jobs some have been doing for more than 20 years. Their homes are now at risk because they can't pay their mortgages. Labour is effectively threatening these workers with "fire and rehire". Pure and simple.