Sheffield city council has said it is working hard to resolve a strike that has seen five household waste recycling centres closed for 15 days over the last month, and has blamed the walkouts on massive government spending cuts.
Strikes were called last month by the GMB, which represents employees at the sites after it was announced that changes to operating hours would see seven staff employees lose their jobs (see letsrecycle.com story).
And, strikes have continued intermittently throughout June at the sites in Woodhouse, Gleedless, Shirecliffe, Highgreen and Deepcar, with the GMB now threatening to strike indefinitely from Saturday (June 23) unless the situation is resolved.
The operators of the sites, waste management firm Veolia Environmental Services and SOVA Recycling, say that they are working with the council and the trade union to come to an agreement that will prevent further strikes, but according to the GMB requests from the arbitration service ACAS to resolve the dispute have not been accepted.
Peter Davies, organiser for the GMB trade union in Sheffield, said: “The strikes are still going on, we have had fifteen days of action over the last month and the next strike is going to start on Saturday and is going to be continuous. There has been no response from the council, Veolia or Sova to the requests from ACAS to start a discussion.
“We need all three parties around the table and we have said that to ACAS and they have been trying to agree a meeting. The council have promised to have a full scrutiny meeting but we have got a four day window and with two days to go, nothing solid has come about. Despite the strike drawing closer we are still hopeful that a resolution can be found.”
Uncertain
According to Mr Davies, three of the seven employees who had been faced with redundancy have opted to leave the company, while the remaining four are still uncertain of their futures.
However the council has insisted it will not back down from its decision to reduce funding for the sites, hitting out at government budget cuts, which it says, are to blame.
Councillor Jack Scott, Sheffield city council’s cabinet member for environment, waste and streetscene, said: “I would like to once again thank everyone for their patience during this dispute, which is a result of the massive Government cuts we’re facing in Sheffield.
Clearly if there was an alternative to making these changes we would have already taken it. But the reality is that the changes to opening times at the centres are the consequence of these funding cuts.
We recognise the impact that these changes will have on the workforce, but because of the cuts we are facing we can not avoid making this saving.”
Dispute
Stephen Bennett, operations director for SOVA Recycling added: We are keen see an end to this dispute so we can get services to the public back on track and see our staff back at work.
Were continuing to work hard, together with the council, Veolia and the GMB to reach a solution and we hope that we can achieve this as soon as possible. In the meantime were doing all we can to ensure the public can continue to dispose of household waste safely and responsibly.
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