It is becoming quite a common sight to see the doors of Birmingham’s Victorian Council House shut and locked because politicians and officials fear that they are about to become the victims of some spontaneous and violent display of public anger.
The imposing entrance through which Chamberlain once strode with confidence when Birmingham was described as the best governed city in the world remained firmly closed during this week’s full council meeting while city leaders cowered inside and raged about “sabotage” by bolshy binmen.
Unfortunately, the binmen never did arrive en-masse, batter down the doors and occupy the council chamber to demand restoration of their huge bonuses and overtime payments.
If this was Paris or Lyon, the Council House would surely have been invaded and quite possibly razed to the ground, but as we are in Birmingham nothing much happened in Victoria Square.
Inside the building, the councillors reverted to tribal instincts. The Tories were incandescent with rage over refuse collectors who have had the temerity to strike and work to rule because a £4,000 productivity bonus has been removed from their pay packets and plans to reorganise rounds will make the men work harder for less money.
The Lib Dems were also angry, but not quite as furious as their Conservative partners, although there was a lot of rage and finger-wagging from deputy council leader Paul Tilsley who somehow managed to connect the city’s binmen to the trade union leaders who elected Ed Milliband as Labour leader.
Labour meanwhile, having awarded the binmen a pay and overtime deal of such absurd generosity in the dim and distant past that even hardened trade union leaders must have been moved to tears, felt duty-bound to defend the ongoing bins dispute.
It was hardly Labour’s finest hour. I believe there is something in the party rules about always supporting “workers in struggle”, but Birmingham’s socialist councillors certainly struggled to put forward any cogent argument in support of the workers.
The simple facts behind the current industrial dispute are that the four trade unions involved are desperately attempting to hang on to as much as they can of an indefensible sweetheart pay deal concocted in the bad old militant days of the 1980s.
It’s worth reminding ourselves of the incredibly powerful position the binmen have found themselves in for 20 years or so. They are contracted to work four 9¼ hour shifts over four days, which in theory should enable all of Birmingham’s domestic refuse to be picked up. Strangely, most crews ‘finish’ their rounds after about six hours and may then – and this is written in their contracts – go home. Naturally, all of the rubbish has not actually been picked up but if managers want the crews to work their full 9¼ hour shift, they have to pay them overtime. Then there is the magical fifth shift, which amounts to a day of guaranteed overtime. It is, unsurprisingly, this money-making shift that the unions are fighting so desperatley to save although my understanding is that the council’s Tory-Lib Dem leadership is determined to do away with it.
