Author Topic: Refuse collectors work to rule  (Read 5899 times)

Patriot

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Refuse collectors work to rule
« on: August 04, 2017, 04:06:25 PM »
I've read in my daily paper that the refuse collectors in Birmingham are operating on a work to rule basis.
Does anyone have any (unbiased) views on this and what is being done  to resolve it?
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Phil

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Re: Refuse collectors work to rule
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2017, 05:23:02 PM »
As I don't pay my rates to Birmingham Council it doesn't affect me, so I can't really say a lot other than I don't really blame the dustmen.

These are just some of the issues at hand,

"More than 100 dustcart supervisor roles will be scrapped and staff offered other jobs elsewhere in the authority.
Other changes will see overtime – including Sunday shift rates – scrapped and the working week upped from four to five days, with a cut in daily hours from nine to seven-and-a-half". (from Birmingham Evening Mail).

What Birmingham Council has failed to say is that the jobs offered in replacement are only temporary and they will also be going eventually so in effect they are not offering replacement jobs. Other than that I know nothing else only when we used the incinerators as a tipping facility we used to see the dustmen going for a shower and knocking off about 12 o clock midday after a 4 or 5 hour day, but let me add quickly that all that finished a long time before I retired and I regularly see dustcarts out on the street a 5 o clock at night now.
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

linwaisee

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Re: Refuse collectors work to rule
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2017, 08:27:39 AM »
my grandfather and great grandfather clocked up over 80 years as dustmen and didn't strike once. They used to have to shovel up the rubbish from the floor of the little area set aside for it into baths that they carried put on their heads to the cart in the street 8 to 10  hours a day 5 and half days a week. In the early days they also had to prepare and feed their carthorses and unshackle them from the carts and feed them at the end of the day. Not like the dustmen of today with their wheeley.bins and lifting tackle to empty the contents into the lorry. Hard times the period 1860 to 1943.

townie

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Re: Refuse collectors work to rule
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2017, 08:39:59 AM »
Well said linwaisee. The dustbin men of yesteryear knew the meaning of work and got on with it. Any rubbished that was dropped on the floor they would pick it up.Todays bin men wouldn't pick up a piece of litter never mind a dustbin. I remember when the bin men used to knock on for their Christmas box and you didn't mind giving them a few bob because they had earned it, The only thing I would give todays bin men would be a UB40. 
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astoness

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Re: Refuse collectors work to rule
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2017, 09:17:35 AM »
todays binmen dont know what a hard days work is...as already said back in the day it was hard collar...humping the bins on heads or shoulders they would collect them from your back yard etc take them to the cart..phyically empty them and then take them back to where they found them...we were happy to give them a christmas box then because they deserved it


today we more or less do the job for them..we now have to get the wheelies out onto the pavement( unless on assisted collection) they then have to take them no more than 3 feet to the back of the wagon..hook them up and the wagon does the rest..we then have to bring them back down


they can empty 100 bins in an hour...bet it took longer than that years ago


i had 2 collections during the strike...my sister waited 6 weeks


they collected my bin last thursday (strike over) so we put the bins out sunday night ready for our normal monday collection...no sign of them coming yet


after the collection last thursday i had to sanitise the household rubbish bin..even though my rubbish is in black bags it was alive with maggots...


the smell as you walked past the bins up our road was awful


we have women on our regular gang and not wishing to belittle us ladies if they can do it its not very hard is it (would they have been able to do it years ago?? doubt it)...another reason is that for years now there has been a waiting list to get on the bins because the job is a cushy one now


do i have sympathy for them?...not on your nelly and i suspect that anyone seeing rats running around their bins would have no sympathy either


lyn







linwaisee

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Re: Refuse collectors work to rule
« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2017, 09:44:50 AM »
after 45 years emptying bins and shovelling up loose ash from household coal fires from the floor into a bath, it was not surprising that my grandfather like many dustmen of that period got emphysema. I can remember the violent attacks when as a 10 to 12 year old I watched him.struggle to breathe. I used to take Friday afternoon's off from school to accompany him to collect his civil service pension from his depot offices. This because my grandmother was scared of him collapsing and getting robbed before an ambulance arrived. No health and safety at work protection then

roy one

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Re: Refuse collectors work to rule
« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2017, 09:51:17 AM »
Refuse collectors work to rule I do agree with them its the only way they can keep there standard of living would you be happy if your boss told you I'm changing your job and I'm going to take a few grand a year off your wage  how would you feel
each day is a blessing and I bless each day when it comes

astoness

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Re: Refuse collectors work to rule
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2017, 10:48:19 AM »
of course i would not be happy roy..no one would but as people keep teling me we must move with the times(something i do not always agree with)...ie before the introduction of the wheelie bin we had 6 men walking behind the wagons collecting the black bags on the pavements and slinging them onto the wagon now we only have 3 doing the job hence the wheelie bin has cost jobs. i dare say the binmen welcomed the wheelies as they have made their jobs a lot easier but you cant have your cake and eat it some things come at a premium. and i dare say that there are lots of out of work people who would be only too willing to take a binmans job despite the cut in wages..they should try spending 6 months on the dole struggling to find work.its not just the binmen who are suffering ie since the new birmingham libary was opened the staff have been cut by half..the opening hours slashed dramacially reason being it cost the council so much to build it that they could not afford the up keep of it so ultimately library staff and the public are paying the price now..i dont do politics as such and i have no answers as to how we can make this country great again but there are people out there who like myself can see us going backwards and entering once again into a workhouse situation such is the state of this country


lyn

roy one

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Re: Refuse collectors work to rule
« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2017, 12:40:07 PM »

i think the bin men have moved on with the times at one time they had job and finish  do your work then go home job done


cut down of the number of crew per bin lorry I wonder how the bosses would react if they was told we are going to down grade your job and cut your pay and you have to go out on the road and do the bin mens job and if you do not like it then give your job up and move to a different department  because there are 1000s out there on the dole that would be happy to do your job and told we have got to save money and we can do this by changing your job and you taking a pay cut   


I say what about the bosses taking a pay cut   no no no no no we can not do that we are not the workers
each day is a blessing and I bless each day when it comes

frederick

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Re: Refuse collectors work to rule
« Reply #9 on: August 23, 2017, 02:02:13 PM »
Roy,
Good post.
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Spud

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Re: Refuse collectors work to rule
« Reply #10 on: August 23, 2017, 07:13:03 PM »
I am not going to get into the rights and wrongs of this dispute but as someone who was involved in a bitter all out strike which lasted 12 weeks from experience there will be no winners. The longer the dispute goes on the more entrenched each side becomes. The longer it goes on  the less chance there will be for things to return to normal once the dust has settled. All I will say to both sides for the sake of the people of Birmingham at least get round a table and talk.
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