Birmingham bin strike row spills into Coventry

Supporters of the Birmingham bin strike have descended on Coventry, accusing the council there of attempting to "break the strike" in the neighbouring city.

About 50 members of the union Unite took part in a protest outside a full meeting of Labour-controlled Coventry City Council on Tuesday.

They were protesting after it emerged Tom White Waste, which is wholly owned by Coventry City Council, was sending vehicles to collect rubbish bags from Birmingham during the ongoing industrial action.

The authority said the company operated as a standalone entity, and that operational decisions rested with the company's management.

Bin workers in Birmingham have been on strike for more than a year because of a row with the Labour-run council there over pay and the removal of some roles.

Matthew Reid, the Unite convenor for the Birmingham bin dispute, said Tom White Waste had been sending 20 to 25 vehicles a day to Birmingham during the strike.

"Another Labour council is sending crews over to Birmingham to break another Labour council's strike," he claimed.

A statement from Coventry City Council said: "Although Tom White Waste is owned by the council, it operates as a stand-alone limited company.

"As shareholder, the council expects the company to operate to high standards, and responsibility for operational decisions rests with the company's management."

Tom White Waste's board is made up entirely of Coventry City Council employees, including Grant McKelvie, who said: "We are a commercial waste management business, and we continue to provide waste collection services to Birmingham City Council under a short-term services agreement."

Reid hit out at the council's assessment, saying closeness between the authority and the company was illustrated by taxpayer money from Coventry City Council being used to bail out the company in the past.

He said: "I would say they are fully responsible for what Tom White gets up to."

He also accused the councils in each city of "talking like Labour but not acting like Labour" and suggested that union support for the party's candidates in the upcoming all-out local elections in Coventry and Birmingham could be withdrawn.

The union recently removed £580,000 of funding from the Labour Party as a result of the Birmingham bin dispute – about 40% of the union's total contribution.

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