That's Not Good, We Need More Than 10% Of Them Gone

Labour will be decimated in May local elections, Unite leader says.Sharon Graham tells party to ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ after ‘shameful’ handling of Birmingham bin strike.

Yes, I know its the modern definition of 'decimation' being used here, but I'm a pedant.. 

In a speech to refuse workers near a waste depot in Tyseley on Thursday, Sharon Graham said working people were moving away from Labour in droves and called on the party to “wake up and smell the coffee”. “We are in one of the most significant strikes in decades,” she said. “An attack from a Labour council under a Labour government. Labour should hang their heads in shame. They are an absolute disgrace.”

The winners of this are up for grabs, but Dave Paulden's mob are likely to be in with a chance, after all, the effects of the strike are attracting all the big vermin.

The strikes, which could last beyond September, will be a key issue in Birmingham in the May local elections, when all 101 council seats are up for grabs.

One year on from the start of the all-out strike, Unite announced it had voted to cut its affiliation fee to Labour by 40%, or £580,000, over its handling of the bin strikes.

Good timeing, as it turned out!  

The union was fined £265,000 earlier this week after its members were found to have breached an injunction which prohibited blockades of waste lorries at depots. Graham said the fine would be paid for by the cut to Labour’s affiliation fee.

The council are in a no win situation. 

The council said it had “reached the absolute limit of what we can offer”, citing the risk of further equal pay claims being made if it acceded to the union’s demands.

Jimmy, an agency worker, said had been stressful to be on strike for such a long time. He said he had previously been a Labour supporter, but would be voting Reform in the local elections. “Labour, they don’t stand up for the working person any more,” he said.

 They never did, Jimmy, not really.

The council’s leader, John Cotton, said it had been in contact with the union to “end this stalemate” and that he wanted to “get round the table with Unite as soon as possible”.

If he can climb ovrt the mountain of uncollected rubbish outside the council office, that is...