[News] Brighton waste collection strike….

[bobby baxter]

Bullying as well. Do you know what they deem is bullying? I don't so unless I'm in the talks directly or hear first hand I don't hold a view.

The problem at Cityclean is that the rounds are badly uneven, many crews complete their allocated routes around, or before, mid day, others work close to, or around their paid hours. The problems occurred when those crews/drivers finishing early were asked to clear backlog from routes that had fallen behind, on some routes, by several weeks, this would involve them working past their early finish time.

When management stopped asking and began insisting on the change, this then led to the bullying allegations.

 

[Weststander]

The council are certainly not blameless for low recycling rates. It's hard to always know what can and cannot be recycled. I suspect a lot of recycling has to be rejected because of contamination with non-recyclables due to people being ill informed.

But let's not kid ourselves. There are plenty of people who care not one sh*t and don't bother to recycle anything at all. That cannot be blamed on the council.

I am in the process of getting a lock for our recycling bin because some of our neighbours are less than neighbourly. I don't mind the odd bit of additional recycling in there, but I find any old crap in there. I found an umbrella deposited in there the other week. Some people are responsible citizens. An annoying amount are selfish lazy c*nts.

Regarding your middle paragraph, I couldn't agree more.

There are people in our so-called nice road, small households who've blagged their way into the getting the oversized BHCC waste bins and barely put out any recycling at all.

Strange that .... I wonder if they don't give a shit about anything other than themselves.


Similary when gales topple recycling bins, the overspill sits in gutters or the road for weeks. So I tidy stuff up.


But an obvious point, selfish twats must live in every city, so why's our recycling rate poor?

 

[Eric the meek]

however bullying isnt mentioned in the GMB statements, though gets thrown in occasionaly by their spokeman. i dont understand why it wouldnt be in the official statements if its part of the official greivence. i also cant understand why the drivers have long standing rounds or why its so important not to change them.

"Workers voted to strike vote comes over a dispute with the city’s Green council over their refusal to intervene and settle an ongoing dispute around unilateral imposed daily changes and removal of drivers from long standing rounds without process, by management whim. "

I'm 95% sure that the removal of drivers from long standing rounds was cited, in all seriousness, as the justification for an earlier strike a few years ago. History repeats itself.

 

[beorhthelm]

The problem at Cityclean is that the rounds are badly uneven, many crews complete their allocated routes around, or before, mid day, others work close to, or around their paid hours. The problems occurred when those crews/drivers finishing early were asked to clear backlog from routes that had fallen behind, on some routes, by several weeks, this would involve them working past their early finish time.

When management stopped asking and began insisting on the change, this then led to the bullying allegations.

now this all makes more sense.

 

[Uter]

But an obvious point, selfish twats must live in every city, so why's our recycling rate poor?

Assuming there are no more twats per capita in B&H than elsewhere (there are many who'd question that), I don't know.

The council could do more to explain what can and cannot be recycled IMO. Not collecting most plastic food packaging certainly doesn't help.

There are most likely a lot of other small factors at play too which collectively add up to a big difference.

EDIT: Having pondered a bit more, perhaps there needs to be a bit more stick too. We're a family of four with one of the smaller bins for weekly waste. If a collection is missed we can still cope as we recycle pretty much everything we can. Maybe we should change to bi-weekly collections for non-recyclables. If we can manage I am sure others could too if they made adjustments.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

The problem at Cityclean is that the rounds are badly uneven, many crews complete their allocated routes around, or before, mid day, others work close to, or around their paid hours. The problems occurred when those crews/drivers finishing early were asked to clear backlog from routes that had fallen behind, on some routes, by several weeks, this would involve them working past their early finish time.

When management stopped asking and began insisting on the change, this then led to the bullying allegations.

Well, if this is the case, then some of them are working harder than the others for the same pay - which is unfair. How the hell they can try to justify not spreading the load is beyond me. The union leaders should be ashamed of themselves.

 

[Eric the meek]

[/B]

I'm 95% sure that the removal of drivers from long standing rounds was cited, in all seriousness, as the justification for an earlier strike a few years ago. History repeats itself.

Just had this confirmed by my wife, who recalled a conversation with a friend, who at that time was a councillor in the green party. He was bemused when he was told that the drivers on strike, wanted to stay in the same teams as their mates. Yes, really.

 

[ferring seagull]

Even before the strike the communal bins near us (that aren't ours to use) hadn't been emptied for 4-5 weeks. They were only emptied once featured in the Argus following complaints and then only I imagine because the Labour conference was on that week. Not been emptied since (again, before the strike started). Having lived in Brighton for 25 years and with family in Mid and EastSussex who never have issues with waste collection, I am sick and tired of the continual problems passed and bypassed from Tory-Labour-Greens without resolution. I am fast becoming a one-issue voter for local council. They should get the army in to cover it ( with rifles ? ) and sort the mess out once and for all if it has to bite hard. Puts you off Trade Unions, which is a shame. We did food treat boxes for the binmen during lockdown but they can absolutely **** off now, no empathy for them at all.

It is incredible that Brighton seems to suffer this hassle routinely !

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

The problem at Cityclean is that the rounds are badly uneven, many crews complete their allocated routes around, or before, mid day, others work close to, or around their paid hours. The problems occurred when those crews/drivers finishing early were asked to clear backlog from routes that had fallen behind, on some routes, by several weeks, this would involve them working past their early finish time.

When management stopped asking and began insisting on the change, this then led to the bullying allegations.

It's reported that the vote for action was 100% by the drivers. The ones that have had to work the longer hours over the years would be on the management's side wouldn't they?

 

[bobby baxter]

Well, if this is the case, then some of them are working harder than the others for the same pay - which is unfair. How the hell they can try to justify not spreading the load is beyond me. The union leaders should be ashamed of themselves.

It really isn`t that simple, the crews finishing early will argue that they work more efficiently and effectively, taking shorter breaks and jog rather than stroll during their shift.

Any attempt to re organise routes are met with resistance from the workforce, who with good reason, don`t have trust in managements ability to effectively manage the service.

Cityclean are a mess.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

It really isn`t that simple, the crews finishing early will argue that they work more efficiently and effectively, taking shorter breaks and jog rather than stroll during their shift.

Any attempt to re organise routes are met with resistance from the workforce, who with good reason, don`t have trust in managements ability to effectively manage the service.

Cityclean are a mess.

It does sound like shit all round.

I've got a talk to do at the Queen's Hotel Thursday, might put some old clothes on and get some smelling salts.

Gardyloo

 

[Denis]

May I ask how much you pay for fortnightly garden waste collection that doesn't get collected? How much does it cost if it does get collected?

Thinking it through, perhaps a solution to the bin strike, would be for all customers to move onto a fortnightly collection.

Then the council and Cityclean would have only half the number of complaints to deal with.

I pay £65 a year, which is fine as I’m a keen gardener and have lawns to regularly cut six months a year.
Unfortunately when you consider I don’t generate much garden waste during the winter months, then often our road gets missed out, I’m lucky if the bin gets emptied ten times a year.

 

[bobby baxter]

It's reported that the vote for action was 100% by the drivers. The ones that have had to work the longer hours over the years would be on the management's side wouldn't they?

The dispute is a win, win for the workforce, the drivers pay is covered by the GMB, the loaders, are being paid their full wage by the council.

When the dispute is settled, a signficant bonus will be negotiated for clearing the refuse/recycling backlog.

 

[Eric the meek]

I pay £65 a year, which is fine as I’m a keen gardener and have lawns to regularly cut six months a year.
Unfortunately when you consider I don’t generate much garden waste during the winter months, then often our road gets missed out, I’m lucky if the bin gets emptied ten times a year.

If you're happy with that, then fine. I have recently taken several carloads of garden waste to the tip, and thought about it, but my wife is on Facebook and says that at least here in Patcham, the brown bin simply doesn't get emptied. So I'd be paying for another service from the council that doesn't get delivered.

I've lost count of the number of times our road gets missed out, even when they aren't on strike. Bin lorry couldn't get up the road / parked cars / roadworks blah, blah, blah. They wouldn't last five minutes in the real world of the private sector.

 

[herecomesaregular]

Some but little sympathy for the binmen and they're not comparable to the other keyworkers such as in adult social care, who routinely change their shift pattern, their rota, routinely do much extra, stay on longer and come in earlier for the same wage, and whom mostly get overtime at 1.0 (often pressured to do so due to staff shortage) which I bet is not the case for binmen. Binmen are essential, do a difficult job (particularly through lockdown) and are appreciated but they are letting themselves down.

 

[wellquickwoody]

Do you possibly think there's other things in play here? One driver was quoted as saying they changed his route meaning in one day he was expected to quadruple his tonnage of waste.

These people as far as I'm aware continued throughout lookdown to pick up the rubbish. I'm sure with many of the public at home at this time the rubbish increased, as everyone was doing their ordering on line. Anyone receiving an Amazon package knows the amount of rubbish one small item creates.

I'm sure a lot got ill, sitting in the cabs together.

When the cries rang out, and rightly they should, for nurses etc to be applauded and rewarded, it then moved to essential workers. The binmen proved yet again they are essential yet when they too complain about their conditions people get stroppy.

It's simple, for some essential, means when I need you, not when I'm inconvenienced and how dare you!

Brighton binmen have been militant ********s for 50 years, nothing to do with Covid, or new routes.

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

This thread brought back a memory from the late sixties.
My grandma had a a house in St Mary Magdalene Street which had a basement kitchen.
The dustman would go through the hall, down the stairs into the kitchen, then out to the back yard to get the bin.
He would then go back upstairs with the bin on his back and empty it into the lorry, then bring the bin back downstairs

 

[pearl]

This thread brought back a memory from the late sixties.
My grandma had a a house in St Mary Magdalene Street which had a basement kitchen.
The dustman would go through the hall, down the stairs into the kitchen, then out to the back yard to get the bin.
He would then go back upstairs with the bin on his back and empty it into the lorry, then bring the bin back downstairs

Hope he got a cuppa for that (at least)

 

[dejavuatbtn]

This thread brought back a memory from the late sixties.
My grandma had a a house in St Mary Magdalene Street which had a basement kitchen.
The dustman would go through the hall, down the stairs into the kitchen, then out to the back yard to get the bin.
He would then go back upstairs with the bin on his back and empty it into the lorry, then bring the bin back downstairs

As was the way I remember. The job has been reengineered so much over the years to simplify it and make it easier for them. God knows what this lot would have thought about doing their job back in the day.

 

[timbha]

Brighton binmen have been militant ********s for 50 years, nothing to do with Covid, or new routes.

About the only service that we don’t tip at Xmas or during lockdown