{"id":16869,"date":"2018-12-14T15:50:18","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T15:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=16869"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:57:50","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:57:50","slug":"birmingham-bin-workers-blacklisting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=16869","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Blacklisting payments&#8217; row"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Over 300 refuse collectors, working for Birmingham city council, have voted overwhelmingly for industrial action in the blacklisting dispute over payments made to refuse workers who did not support last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s long running bin dispute.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The workers, members of Unite voted by 94 per cent in favour of strike action and 97 per cent for industrial action short of a strike.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite wants the council to treat all employees doing the same jobs equally and not to discriminate against employees because of their choice of trade union or because they have taken lawful industrial action.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To this end, the workers will start an overtime ban and a work to rule starting at 00:01 hours on Saturday, December 29.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The industrial action comes after the council recently admitted that it had made payments worth several thousand pounds each to a group of refuse workers who did not take part in last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bin dispute.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite assistant general secretary Howard Beckett said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is an overwhelming ballot result that shows that our refuse collection members are not prepared to be discriminated against, compared with another group of workers who received thousands of pounds for not taking part in last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dispute.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe individuals who took the decision to make such payments must be accountable to the public. To this end, we have openly written to each Labour councillor to explain the utter nonsense of the excuses given by the council for the payment to the GMB members.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis was blatant blacklisting &#8211; an attempt by the council\u00c2\u00a0to prefer workers in a union that did not take industrial action,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are seeking a working environment where equality and non-discrimination are key pillars of the council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s working practices.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe work to rule is designed to be proportionate and to allow the council time to do the right thing. It will be disruptive, but the council should listen to the message from their workforce and take immediate remedial action.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHow the council responds will dictate whether this dispute escalates or is resolved,&#8221; Beckett went on to say. &#8220;The people of Birmingham should watch the council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s every move and hold their councillors to account for their decisions and actions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite members have no wish to inflict disruption and upset to the people of Birmingham, but they have no option but to take action to protect their collective rights. The blame for this dispute lies squarely at the door of the council.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over 300 refuse collectors, working for Birmingham city council, have voted overwhelmingly for industrial action in the blacklisting dispute over payments made to refuse workers who did not support last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s long running bin dispute. &nbsp; The workers, members of Unite voted by 94 per cent in favour of strike action and 97 per cent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[805,788,52],"wps_subtitle":"Birmingham refuse workers to take industrial action ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16869"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16869"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25668,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16869\/revisions\/25668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}