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From The Socialist newspaper, 20 February 2008
Collection cuts and bullying equals bin strike!
Brighton bin workers stood up to bullying managers last week after cuts to the city's refuse budget started to impact on already strained services.
Peter Knight, Brighton Socialist Party
Over 300 workers walked out for two days after crews were forced to cover up management's failure to provide backup trucks and enough trained staff for every round.
Last November the council slashed thousands of pounds from its own in-house Cityclean budget to spend elsewhere.
This has now resulted in crews going out short-handed, meaning rounds cannot be completed. By the end of the week some rounds are up to two days behind with workers forced to catch up!
A striking bin worker added: "As a result of these cuts a majority of the workers who are left are now agency workers so the council can treat them how they want. Now they're cutting back on using these agency staff with some told there's no work for a whole week even though there's loads to get done.
"How are people supposed to survive like that, not knowing when the next day's work is coming? And how is the collection of the city's rubbish supposed to get done when funding is cut like this?"
As the rubbish piled up across the streets of Brighton, so too did the pressure on council bosses who could see they were losing the battle and their resolve. In one incident that helped to spark the strike, workers were called: "too fat and lazy to do their jobs". On the third day management backed down and conceded that they would listen to the concerns of the bin workers.
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In The Socialist 20 February 2008:
Demonstration
Socialist Party news
Stop the witch-hunt: Defend the Sheridan 7
Prison officers fight Labour's strike ban
Battle for Shropshire schools goes on
Coventry protests at Widdecombe's attacks
Football: Top of the League for greed
Socialist Party Marxist analysis
Northern Rock - Labour's reluctant nationalisation
1918-2008: Clause 4 and nine decades of workers' struggles
Socialist Party NHS campaign
London's health care under further attack
Fighting back and building a demo
"Not making sufficient profit"
Socialist Students
Universities in crisis: Fees favour the rich
Exeter students fight privatisation
International socialist news and analysis
Kosovan independence - a dangerous mirage?
Greece: Second general strike in two months
Socialist Party review
Science, Marxism and the big bang
Socialist Party workplace news
It's official - Unison launches witch-hunt on Socialist Party
Socialist gains in Unison branch elections
Collection cuts and bullying equals bin strike!
Victory for council street wardens
Workplace news in brief
Marching against single status
Solidarity with Pakistan workers
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