Unite suspends Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner over Birmingham bin strikes
Unite the Union has suspended deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, over her role in the Birmingham bin strikes.
Unite has overwhelming voted to re-examine its relationship with Labour and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has had her Unite membership suspended over her role in the Birmingham bin strike.
The decision was taken following an emergency motion passed at the union’s policy conference in Brighton today that condemned Birmingham’s Labour council and the Labour government for attacking the bin workers.
Birmingham council leader, John Cotton, and fellow Unite Birmingham councillors have also had their Unite membership suspended for their roles in effectively firing and rehiring the workers, who are striking over pay cuts of up £8,000.
'Fire and rehire' makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite is crystal clear it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette. Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.
“The disgraceful actions of the government and a so-called Labour council, is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises.
“People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour government on and coming up with the answer not workers.
The emergency condemned “Birmingham council for its threat to effectively fire and rehire, on pain of redundancy, the Unite Birmingham bin workers”. The Labour government is also condemned for its “support to the council and the commissioners, originally appointed by the Tories and maintained by Labour.”
It then commits the union if the redundancy process is forced through “Unite should discuss our relationship with Labour.”
"We have reached the absolute limit" - Birmingham City Council
It follows the announcement earlier this week that Birmingham City Council is walking away from negotiations having "reached the limit of what it can offer workers".
Council leader John Cotton said in a statement on Wednesday: "Throughout this process, the council has sought to be reasonable and flexible, but we have reached the absolute limit of what we can offer.
"It is well-known that the council has an equal pay risk, we have been negotiating since before Christmas but have now run out of time.
"We have negotiated in good faith but unfortunately Unite has rejected all offers so we must now press ahead to both address our equal pay risk and make much needed improvements to the waste service. This is a service that has not been good enough for a long time and we must improve it.
"Unite's demands would leave us with another equal pay bill of hundreds of millions of pounds, which is totally unacceptable, and would jeopardise the considerable progress we have made in our financial recovery.
"We must be fair to all our staff, and I will not repeat the mistakes of the past by making decisions that would ultimately result in further cuts to services and the sale of more council assets."
Birmingham’s government appointed commissioners, who, along with John Cotton, have never joined negotiations and have continually blocked deals to end the strike, answer directly to Angela Rayner.
Ms Rayner, Cotton and other the other Labour councillors have been suspended for “bringing the union into disrepute”. This will be followed by an investigation into their behaviour with a “view to expelling them from the union.”
In April, the secretary of state for local authorities toured Birmingham waste depots using strike breaking labour and insisted the strikers should accept a deal that would have seen their wages slashed.
The motion was voted on by 800 Unite delegates who represent sectors across the economy from automotive to the NHS.
Unite is the largest affiliated union to the Labour Party.