Refuse workers in the Unite union in Cardiff recently voted overwhelmingly for strike action in a dispute over bullying and the use of agency workers by Cardiff Council. Tom Davies spoke to Unite regional organiser Ruth Hyndon about the reasons behind the strike vote.
Last week the Unite union announced that workers in Cardiff Council’s Waste Services Department had voted overwhelmingly for strike action against what they described as a toxic bullying culture in the workplace.
The strike vote, which included refuse lorry drivers and bin collectors, saw an overwhelming majority of 98% of workers back industrial action.
A representative from the Unite union spoke to voice.wales about the issues that are driving the mood for strike action and said that some workers are humiliated by managers if they do not complete their rounds on time.
Strike dates have yet to be confirmed, but any action by workers is expected to have a significant impact on rubbish collections across the city and come at a time when the Labour-run authority faces elections in May.
Unite says that their members’ concerns around bullying, health and safety and the excessive use of agency work has been ignored by the council, and that some workers have been on an agency contract for 15 years.
Sharon Graham, the Unite General Secretary who has pursued a new industrial strategy since her election last summer, said that workers “have had enough of this toxic workplace culture and want change.”
“Unite will not tolerate bullying and harassment in any workplace or the targeting of our reps. Our members will receive the full support of Unite during this dispute,” she added.
In a statement, Cardiff council said they had been engaging in “constructive discussions” with Unite Wales and were seeking to resolve the dispute, adding that they take all allegations of bullying seriously and operate a ‘zero-tolerance’ approach. A council spokesperson told voice.wales that Unite had not brought evidence forward of bullying and that “the claims that are being made are unsubstantiated.”
But Ruth Hyndon, the Unite regional officer organising around the dispute, says that issues have been mounting for some time.
“Basically, we’ve been talking with our members over the past couple of months…and there is really an endemic problem of bullying in the service,” she explains.
She says that when a workplace union rep decided to collect names for a collective grievance over bullying and workplace health and safety concerns last year, he was quickly suspended over an unrated incident which occured 10 months previously.
One issue the rep was raising was that refuse workers were regularly being asked to criss-cross the street when collecting bins, a practice which Ruth says is considered unsafe.
“So that’s what they’re seeking to discipline him for,” says Ruth, adding that he was left suspended in limbo for weeks.
But she says that this issue is “symptomatic of the really toxic culture that there is there.”
Ruth says that after the service was changed by the council last year, workers have found themselves under huge amounts of pressure to complete rounds which aren’t doable in the time that is available.
One of the most damning claims made by the Unite official is that refuse workers tell her that they are mistreated by managers if they haven’t completed their rounds on time.
“This is what our members who are on the shop floor are saying, that the managers bully them,” she explains.
“They tell me, they’re regularly shouted at, abused or humiliated when they go back to the office.”
Integral to how workers are treated, Ruth Hyndon says, is also the overuse of agency staff by Cardiff Council. These are workers who are not employed directly via Cardiff Council but by an external employment agency which takes a portion of their wage. The agency worker is not only on a lower rate of pay, but also has less job security.
Unite says there is a high proportion of long-term agency workers in waste services which is a major factor in the problem.
“So there’s a lot who’ve been there 2,3,4,5 years on agency contracts,” says Ruth. “But there are some people who’ve been there for 9, 10 years… one has been there 15 years on an agency contract.”
She says that a situation where the use of agency workers is widespread makes people much more vulnerable to potential bullying, because they can be dropped at a moment’s notice.
“You can tell an agency worker who’s been working there on a regular basis for nine years ‘oh actually, you’ve annoyed me today. I’ve got no work for you tomorrow’, and they don’t get paid. Or they get called in [to work] and they’re told when they get there that there’s no work for them. And then they get paid for just two hours.
She says that some workers have even travelled from as far afield as Swansea and Merthyr Tydfil for a 6am start, only to be told that there’s no work for them that day.
“It’s exploitation, frankly,” says the Unite official. She cites one example of a worker who has been working in waste services for 10 years as a bin loader. Despite this, the worker was forced to apply for a permanent position for a job they had already been doing. In the end, they weren’t even shortlisted for an interview.
“They’re making them write an application form in order to be considered for a job that they’ve been doing for years,” says Ruth.
“It’s a Labour Council…there’s no way there should be workers there for 15 years on agency.”
Unite began ratcheting up its campaign around bullying at the beginning of the year, frustrated that their rep was still suspended after he had collective names for a collective grievance.
The union then held a protest outside the council offices in February and emailed all of its members who live in Cardiff, urging them to contact council leader Huw Thomas directly over the issue.
“Bullying managers leave workers stressed, off sick, afraid for their jobs, and unable to speak up about safety concerns for fear of being victimised,” the union wrote in the communication.Unite also says that the council has put up barriers to the union meeting with its members on site to discuss the issue.
The GMB union, who say they have the majority of members in Cardiff’s waste services, told voice.wales that they had not had complaints over bullying come through to them and were not aware of any grievances that had been raised on the issue.
Any strike action by Unite would take the dispute to a whole new level, and the union is already warning of significant disruption to rubbish collections across Cardiff.
And as the cost of living crisis throws millions of workers into poverty, more are deciding to strike in response, with the TUC announcing this week that the number of strikes in the UK is at the highest point for 5 years.
In Cardiff, industrial action could also come at a time when Welsh Labour are seeking to retain control of the capital in council elections in May.
Despite Unite being one of Labour’s key funders and trade union affiliates, it has recently made clear its intention to fight any party at local level who it feels is mistreating their members, regardless if it is Labour run or not.
In Coventry, refuse lorry drivers in the Unite union have been on strike since the end of January, in a dispute over pay with the Labour-run council there.
At a strike rally in Coventry on 26th March, Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham announced the suspension from Unite of all Labour councillors who were members of the union.
She went on to accuse the Labour councillors of colluding with strike breaking, sacking a shop steward and failing to negotiate with union members.
In a further sign that industrial disputes will come before political affiliations, Unite has also said that Coventry Labour Party will receive no funds from Unite to fight upcoming council elections.
“Instead of recognising what these workers did through the pandemic -and come to the table and negotiate – what has this Labour council done?” asked Ms Graham at the Coventry rally. “Peddled lies and hatred about hard working men and women.”
It’s too early to tell whether Unite’s relationship with Cardiff Coucnil’s Labour group will become as fractured as it is in Coventry, but it’s clear that the leadership is prepared to turn on Labour run authorities in defence of its members.
voice.wales put a number of Unite’s allegations to Cardiff council, including the suspension of a union rep, bullying if rounds weren’t completed on time and the excessive use of agency workers.
In response, the council said they had been meeting with Unite but no evidence had been brought forward to date.
“We take all allegations of bullying seriously and will always work with Trade Unions when they bring forward specific allegations to investigate,” they said. “We have robust and long-standing processes in place that have been developed in partnership with our Unions – to do just that.”
“All the Unions know we take a zero-tolerance approach to bullying and the health and safety of our staff is a priority for us.”
