Sheffield bin striker tells council “we simply want the voices of our members to be heard at the negotiating table”

The strikers, who are taking all-out, indefinite industrial action, protested outside Sheffield Town Hall and presented public petitions, signed by 240 people, supporting their action to a meeting of Sheffield City Council on Wednesday (September 4).

Striker Joel Mayfield told the meeting that the Veolia contract with the council had earned the company £11.7 million in post-tax profits in the previous year.

He said that a significant part of the workforce are former council employees whose contracts were transferred to contractor Onyx 20 years ago and now work for Veolia. “So to some extent, these employees we are talking about are the responsibility of the council.”

He said that Unite’s predecessor union the T&G and the GMB previously shared recognition under the council, with it not recognising Unite. “As far as we’re aware, that tripartite agreement still stands.

“This dispute is about who negotiates pay and conditions on behalf of our members. Although this isn’t about money, it’s a very lucrative contract for Veolia, so when we want to negotiate pay and conditions, we want a competent union that we’ve chosen in negotiating a fair slice of that very lucrative pie that they’ve got, a fair slice.

Constructive

“Now at present, the GMB is the only union that Veolia Lumley Street is prepared to recognise when it comes to negotiating pay and conditions. Veolia has consistently said that this position cannot and will not change, no matter what action we take,” said Mr Mayfield.

“And neither the GMB nor Veolia are prepared to engage in constructive dialogue with Unite about changing this position, therefore denying Unite members a voice at the negotiating table. A significant percentage of the employees at Veolia Lumley Street belong to Unite the Union.

“Therefore Unite has approached management at Lumley Street on several occasions to ask for a joint recognition agreement, along with GMB. We’re not seeking to displace GMB, ie a seat at the negotiating table for future talks on pay and conditions.”

Mr Mayfield said that Unite already has a shop steward and a health and safety steward on site, with the management’s consent. They are involved in representing colleagues in disciplinary matters and raising other concerns and management speak and listen to them.

Veolia also allows the Unite reps reasonable paid leave for union training courses and union business. “So by engaging with Unite, even on this level, Veolia are de facto recognising them to an extent, and we want Veolia to go further and grant full recognition on a par with GMB.

He added: “Unite members have regrettably had no other choice but to vote for strike. It’s regrettable, we didn’t want to go on strike, we’d rather talk to Veolia, they talk to us.

Sacrifices

“We’re not on strike for more money, we’re not on strike for enhanced pay and conditions, we’re not being greedy going on strike, we’re not being selfish, and of course, we are making personal sacrifices by going on strike, financial sacrifices.

“We simply want the voices of our members to be heard at the negotiating table at all future negotiations on pay and conditions, and we consider it unfair that our members have their pay and conditions negotiated solely by GMB, who are not our elected representatives.

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“This is about democracy and it’s about raw trade unionism – it’s simply about the right to be represented in those negotiations, not about what we get in those negotiations; not to start with, no.”

Mr Mayfield said Ian Burrows, head of Veolia HR, indicated that he is prepared for Unite to be recognised.

He asked the council to intervene on their behalf “and bring this issue to a quick resolution”.

Coun Joe Otten, chair of the council waste and street scene policy committee, responded that the GMB has a long-standing, exclusive recognition deal with Veolia in Sheffield, and he believed that the GMB represents the majority of the workforce.

Negotiation

“This means that moving to a joint recognition agreement requires agreement of both the unions. Now I understand, and clearly it’s different to what you’ve said, that there is an offer from the TUC to meet with both unions for the purpose of discussing the position that you’ve put to us, and that offer stands.

“Clearly you’ve said that you want to participate in that negotiation, so I hope that we can make that go ahead, because clearly it’s in nobody’s interest that the industrial action carries on.

“As a council, we don’t directly get involved, clearly, in disputes between Veolia and their employees and their unions but clearly, as the people paying for a service on behalf of the people of Sheffield, we are very interested that the service works, that the workers are happy and that we all get our bins emptied.

“The impact of the strike on the workforce means that there have been some losses of bin collections, it means that the bin sites have been temporarily closed so that we can prioritise doorstep collections, and it does mean that bins don’t always get emptied on the day that they are meant to be emptied.

“We do say leave your bin out if it’s not been emptied and we will hopefully pick it up in the next day or so. There will be regular updates on the service level on the council’s service alerts and press and comms.

“I hope that we can resolve this and I hope that that negotiation between the two unions and Veolia, facilitated by the TUC, can go ahead.”