A top union boss handed Labour a stark warning before joining a major rally led by Birmingham bin workers this morning.
Unite’s General Secretary Sharon Graham vowed she would join the refuse collectors, who have been striking for over a year against the city council’s decision to cut their pay, while suggesting she would seek disaffiliation with Labour entirely.
The union, historically one of Labour’s highest donors, has slammed Sir Keir Starmer’s party for dragging its feet on paying the bin workers.
The leading union has now cut its affiliation fee by 40 per cent, reducing funds from £1.45million to £870,000, a move which the union said “shows the anger of Unite members”.
Last year, Ms Graham suspended Angela Rayner from the major union over her handling of the crisis, while the union sought to “re-examine their relationship” with the party.
As a result, the party, which once prided itself on being the voice of the working class has been spurned further by Unite today, with Ms Graham suggesting to GB News she would seek to cut all ties with the party.
“We are affiliated to Labour by rule, and there’s a rules conference next year where that decision is made by members,” she told the People’s Channel.
“We’re a collective organisation, and members make that decision.”
She said that if the rules conference were held today, the union chief admitted they would be entirely disaffiliated with Labour.
The union has already cut its affiliation fee by 40 per cent
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GETTY/GB NEWS
She added: “I think workers up and down the country, my members, over one million members, representatives across in many, many workplaces, defence, oil and gas, the banking sector across the piece are saying, ‘what is Labour doing?’
“This is not a Government that is backing workers. And that’s a problem for them, because it’s not just what I’m saying.
“This is what droves and droves of workers are saying up and down the country. And I think in May we will see an outpouring of that.”
Ms Graham explained workers were “scratching their heads, not least in Birmingham” over the crisis causing filth to accumulate on the streets of Birmingham, while rats the “size of cats” prowl residential areas.
“Labour is supposed to be in Government for workers, for the working class, to make sure that they put those people at the front of the queue, and they haven’t done that in many, many ways,” she fumed.
BIRMINGHAM BIN STRIKES LATEST:
Demonstrations have been taking place for over a year
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The Unite boss demanded Government intervention, blasting: “This is a Labour council under a Labour Government.
“And effectively, what’s happening to these workers, if this was happening with a different employer in the private sector, Labour would be jumping up and down in jumping picket lines, attacking workers, sacking workers and obviously cutting their pay by a quarter.”
“It is absolutely outrageous that Labour are allowing this to happen on their watch. So we’re calling on Labour to intervene.”
Ms Graham continued: “They need to wake up and smell the coffee, and understand that workers across Britain are scratching their heads and asking, who is Labour representing here?
“Because they’re certainly not representing workers.”
On the first anniversary of the bin strikes, Reform MP Robert Jenrick hit out at the Labour council’s actions while there is seemingly no end in sight for the dispute.
He likened the city to a third-world country as he delivered scathing criticism against the ongoing battle between the council and its workers.
Mr Jenrick told GB News: “I know Birmingham very well. I grew up down the road in Wolverhampton and to see the city, particularly some of its poorest neighbourhoods, looking like a third-world country with rubbish piled up everywhere, it was absolutely tragic.
“It’s got to come to an end and the failing council there has got to sort this thing out, get the trade unions round the table and bring this to a conclusion.”
Majid Mahmood, the council’s cabinet member for environment and transport, said on Tuesday: “We are working to keep the city safe and clean and thanks to the injunction have maintained a weekly collection for Birmingham families.
“The fine of £265,000 (plus £170,000 interim payment in relation to the council’s legal costs) was issued by the judge [and] will send a clear message about what is acceptable behaviour and what is not.”