Sheffield Veolia bin strikers march on town hall with French trade unionists
Unite members have been on strike since last August
Striking bin workers have marched on Sheffield Town Hall to call for the city council to broker a deal to end their dispute over union recognition.
The Unite the Union members, who have been on strike since last August, were joined by colleagues from the French trade union the CGT and by bin workers in Birmingham, who are also out on strike, as well as other trade unionists and supporters today (March 19).
They marched from the Lumley Street depot of council waste management contractor Veolia to the town hall. Speakers at a rally held on the town hall steps included a CGT member, striker Joel Mayfield and former striking miner John Dunn from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign.
Mr Mayfield told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We demand recognition for our union. We want to be represented by the union of our choice, not the employer’s choice.
“We don’t want Sheffield City Council to say ‘this is an inter-union dispute and we can’t do anything about it’. Veolia have signed a very lucrative 30-year contract to empty the bins in this city – the council are the paymasters, they gave them the contract.
“They need to make sure the contractor abides by the same terms and conditions they abide by themselves.”
Veolia said in December that it withdrew from signing a recognition deal with Unite because the GMB, which is currently the only recognised union at the workplace, raised a counter dispute with both the TUC and the company.
Mr Mayfield said that there used to be a tripartite union recognition agreement in place before Veolia took over the contract.
He added that there was supposed to be a meeting involving both unions and senior councillors but the GMB pulled out. Joel said: “We’ll meet wherever you want – on our picket line, in the back of a bin wagon, at your place or our place.”
Coun Denise Fox of the Sheffield Community Councillors Group joined the rally. She said: “I support the right to be in any union you wish and it should be recognised by Sheffield City Council.
“The council recognises numerous unions, why shouldn’t Veolia?” Coun Fox said that councillors had heard from council leader Coun Tom Hunt that he remains neutral in the dispute, a position she disagrees with.
She said that her husband, former council leader Coun Terry Fox, also supports the Veolia strikers.
Mathieu Dougoud, secretary general of the construction branch of French union the CGT, was one of a delegation of nine who came to support the strikers. Veolia is a French-owned multinational company.
He said: “We have come to express solidarity with Unite. The fight against Veolia has gone on far too long – they won’t listen to the union, they won’t let the union speak.”
He said that French unions have the same problems in dealing with the firm.
M Dougoud added: “It’s urgent that the leaders of Sheffield City Council listen to the leaders of Unite and that the politicians in the council get behind the Unite members.”
Unite campaigners have protested about the dispute outside the company’s Paris headquarters and at the French parliament the National Assembly. They also took their protest to Tempe, Arizona in the USA when the company’s CEO Estelle Brachlianoff was speaking at an event in January.
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