“Whose side are you on?”

Brothers, sisters, comrades

It’s an honour to stand here at the Tolpuddle Martyrs Rally amongst trade union activists and working class people who know that history doesn’t just live in the past, it lives in our struggles today.

We are here to remember those six brave men who stood against injustice in 1834, and to remind the world that the spirit of Tolpuddle lives on in 2025. Right now that spirit is alive in Birmingham in the depots and on the picket lines in our own fight against injustice.

We remember the Tolpuddle Martyrs, not as victims, but as fighters. They were criminalised for organising. Today my members are vilified as being greedy simply because they are fighting to protect the pay, terms and conditions they already have. They are not asking for more, they are asking to be left on their current pay and grade that, in some cases, has taken 20 years to achieve.

This is a fight to protect wages. This is a fight to defend our homes and our families – because when you face a pay cut of £8000 a year, that is what is at stake.

So I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your solidarity. While I thank a Labour Council and a Labour Government from the heart of my bottom! It is beyond a disgrace. It is abhorrent that a Labour Council under a Labour Government has publicly announced what is, to all intents and purposes, nothing less than fire and re-hire. They can call it a re-structure all day long, but when you tell a worker that from a certain date, the most important part of the employment contract, the rate of pay, will be cut with no agreement, that it’s take it or leave it, that is fire and re-hire!!

As the saying goes, if it walks like a duck, quakes and swims like a duck, then it’s a duck.

For me actions speak louder than words. You can talk about improving workers rights all day long. We have been told, time and time again that a Labour government will ban fire and re-hire. Why then is a Labour Council, under the thumb of commissioners appointed by a Labour Government now moving to fire and re-hire its workforce?

To me it’s clear. Unless we as unions force a ban on fire and re-hire, then it will not be banned. This is what Birmingham shows. They will attempt to allow for exemptions. They will say “it’s sort of banned, except where employers have no option”. Without a complete ban employers will always say they have no option.

It is now time for those who claim to stand up for working people to “Whose side are you on?” Workers across the are giving the answer. We have had unswerving support from workers. Our union’s commitment to this dispute is rock solid, from the General Secretary Sharon Graham to our Regional Secretary, Annmarie Kilcline, to members right across the UK. Our union will not take any lectures from politicians, including MPs on subsidised lunches, telling us that an £8000 pay cut is a “fare and reasonable” offer.

We take no lectures from MPs who visit Birmingham to pat strike breakers on the back while refusing to visit our picket lines.

We take no lectures from Councillors who award themselves a 5.7% increase in allowances, while telling us our pay has to be cut.

Let me be clear on the issue of equal pay. We fully support equal pay. The Council claimed that this is all about equal pay. That is, and excuse the pun, but it is a huge pile of rubbish. They have been exposed with the statement they made last week saying that they would halt negotiations and move to impose a re-structure that includes the cut to drivers pay. That is what this has been about from Day 1. It is about austerity. It is about cuts. It is about attempting to force workers to pay for a crisis we did not cause!!

Because if you want equal pay. If you truly care about the pay of women, you wouldn’t cut the pay of men in order to share the misery of low pay. You would not level down – you would level up!! 

Now that’s what I call equal pay!!

So how do we fund local government? Because mark my words, this is what awaits Councils across the UK. We need new political choices. Instead of making cuts, we need new political choices. We don’t need magic money trees – we need to tax the rich!! That is why we demand a wealth tax. A 1% wealth tax on the richest 1% brings in £26 billion!!

The money exists – it’s just the wrong people have it, and they have too much of it!

The answers exist. The money exists. It’s about making the right political choice.

So our message to a Labour government, Labour appointed commissioners and a Labour Council is – 

We won’t be intimidated

We won’t be divided

We won’t be silenced

We will continue to fight this injustice together. We will continue to laugh together, and occasionally cry together. We will gather strength from each other, and those that support us in the wider movement, because we all believe the same.  

That an injury to one is an injury to all.

I see evidence of this everyday from visits to picket lines by people from all over the country, to the messages of solidarity and donations we’ve received. I’ve come to understand that they are not just words we say, but a moral code we live by, and it’s truly humbling to experience.

Brothers, sisters, comrades – I thank you again for your unwavering solidarity.

Victory to the Birmingham bin strikers!!

By Matt Reid, Unite Shop Steward and Birmingham bin worker

Photos by Mark Thomas