Rayner in deepening row with union over Birmingham bin strikes
www.bbc.co.uk
Unite announced earlier it had suspended her membership over the long-running dispute in Birmingham.

Unite has announced it has suspended Angela Rayner from her membership of the union, in an escalating row over the long-running bin strikes in Birmingham.

The deputy prime minister has been urging striking bin workers to accept a deal to end the dispute tabled by the Labour-run city council.

In an emergency motion at its conference in Brighton, the union said it would also re-examine its relationship with Labour if the council makes any of its members redundant.
[…]
A spokesperson for Rayner said she is no longer a member of the union - although Unite is insisting that she is on its membership system.

Unite is affiliated to Labour, and is the party’s biggest union funder.

It did not donate to the party’s election campaign last year, but made donations worth £10,000 towards Rayner’s campaign, according to her register of interests.

Members of the union walked out in January over plans to downgrade some roles as part of the city council’s attempts to sort out its equal pay liabilities.

An all-out indefinite strike was announced in March, and a deal to end industrial action has not yet been reached.

They also suspended Birmingham Council leader John Cotton.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
    43·
    4 days ago

    Great well done, so everyone’s wrong and you’ve “both sided” this.

    Meanwhile in the real world the truth is the council tried to cut people’s jobs because of a technicality. Not because they couldn’t afford to pay them, but because it was the easiest way for them to tick a box.

    Everyone’s equally to blame, sure.

    • Womble@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      4 days ago

      Please read people’s comments before deciding for them what their position is and demonising them for what you decide they are saying.

      manny has not said anyone is wrong never mind “both sides” and their point is a fair one. Personally given an industrial dispute I am heavily baised towards beliving the union is more likely to be in the right that the employer. In this case however the employer is local government who are essentially out of money due to the cuts imposed on them by austerity over the past 15 years. Further than that I dont know the details so I cant say if these strikes are justified or not, but asking who is in the right is not heresy that must be cleansed from discourse.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
        12·
        4 days ago

        Ironic that you would say that since you didn’t actually bother to interpret my comment.

        I have no problem with understanding both sides of the arguement. As you say it’s an important thing to do, but that wasn’t what happened with this comment. What happened with this comment was virtue signalling, they actually bother to understand both sides of the argument they just said that they had with no understanding of the situation.

        • Womble@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          4 days ago

          No, you were quite literally projecting that, they asked if the government position was wrong. You are assuming bad faith and it’s poor behaviour.

    • mannycalavera@feddit.uk
      34·
      4 days ago

      Me trying to see both sides of a complex matter.

      Great well done, so everyone’s wrong and you’ve “both sided” this.

      FML. 🥲

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
        23·
        4 days ago

        You’re equating the council bigwigs fiddling with finances for technicality reasons with people who are only trying to advocate for fair financial compensation.

        Not really the same thing

        • mannycalavera@feddit.uk
          21·
          4 days ago

          You’re equating the council bigwigs fiddling with finances for technicality reasons with people who are only trying to advocate for fair financial compensation

          No, you’ve misunderstood completely what I’m saying and are making assumptions. Are you able to point to where I am equating the two sides like you claim?

          Would it help you if I reiterated the following:

          • The council’s position is not automatically in the right simply because they’re the council.
          • The union’s position is not automatically in the right simply because they’re the unions.
          • The people of Birmingham are living a sanitary and health nightmare right now.
          • With the deadlock from both sides nobody is winning or happy.

          So is Rayner’s stance unreasonable given this? And it’s all right if the answer is no but I’d like to understand why. That’s my position. Not something you’ve dreamt up.