I fully support the strike and I would not mind taking my rubbish to the recycle places to dispose as the cost of living has gone up so much no body can afford to have a pay cut.. it is so unfair.
I will be able to get to work on time to now because they won't see me and then decide to take their time.

Rather than cut the wages.

Why not freeze future increases until pay scales are inline.

Why dont all the councillors from all parties get togeather and work this problem out instead of using it as a political football to win points.
Labour say they are right , Conservatives and the others say they are right and they are all slagging off eatch other.

The only people who are suffering are the workers.

If they all got togeather and came up with a solution they all thought was the best way to sort this problem out then it would be the only way it could be done.

64 elected councillors who are unqualified to do the work needed to resolve this issue are making decisions that affect hundreds of peoples lives.

You would not let a man invest your life savings for you just because enough people in a ward voted for him.

Some of our councillors cant even read or write english yet they can decide on our workers future.

Time to get real and look at what is happening in our town hall.

I agree with JB Blackburn and I sent the invite below to all members, of all parties earlier this week. As yet I have not had a response from any members of the other parties. But we do need to resolve the issue. I am happy to talk to anyone who is prepared to sit and listen. At two Council meetings, the Labour Group offered a viable, financially sound alternative. Unfortunately all other members voted against this. It would have been wrong to use this politically, which is why I have waited until after the election to try and get some sound all party agreement.


This is the message I have sent to all Councillors, as stated earlier no one from the other parties have responded.

quote

Regardles of how you try and manipulate these figures, of those who voted there is an overwhelming message that these staff are quite rightly unhappy with the situation. I could challenge the numbers used here, please see attached ( just look at the grades of losers, and the number of Council Employees suffering, I have had a number of employees approach me stating that they have signed an agreement under duress, as they are concerned about their jobs. I think if I got a 90 days notice with the threat of losing my job I may have signed . These people have families and committments, they are not on a huge salary, and in the main live in the Borough.Some will even have to sell their homes. As you can see from the information attached, the losers are in the main those earning below £24k. When you look at the actual detail, which I am happy to share if required, there are a number of employees dropping from 17k to 14K and 13K to 11K. Hardly a huge wage even before the cuts.

However the main thing is that there is a large number of lower paid workers losing an unaccepatable % of their salary. If any member, wishes to see the complete list, I am happy to send them it, please count the number of losers for yourselves, also the extent of the losses against the " winners".


A number of Coalition members have stated they voted for this but did not understand it, some even said it was nothing to do with them as they are not in that portfolio, even more said that Officers told them there was no choice, and it would be illegal to extend the protection, Some even think that the Labour Group drew the payline. Regardless of what people think or why they voted for this, we need to put that behind us and set about resolving or addressing the concerns.

There was a solution to this issue, please do not let ego's get in the way of common sense. The uncertainty for these employees must be horrendous, is this really the way we want to treat long serving valued employees.


We all need to work together on this to find an acceptable solution.

quote

Thanks Kate

kate, what was the solution offered????
Was it not Labour whilst in control of the Council that actually instigated this Pay Review

I do hope that BWDBC is going to reduce my council tax accordingly! This is just another example of Labour's way of paying off their irresponsible debts - rob from the poorly paid and make them even poorer! It is disgraceful. The binmen/women do a fantastic job and they have my full support.

Labour WERE in control of the council when the pay review was instigated - that is true.

It is also true that the payline - which is where the main problems have arisen - was NOT set whilst Labour were in control.

People who were given the same score as somebody doing the same job in a different council should really be receiving the same salary - shouldn't they?

Instead, many are receiving between 2 and 4 thousand pounds less. Why this is acceptable to the government I do not know.

If the government wanted the councils to carry out a pay review they should surely have set a FAIR and EQUAL pay line instead of allowing councils to set their own.

There are also arguments around the methodology used for the pay review, but I believe the biggest issue is the one regarding the random setting of pay scales.

Surely Band B in Blackburn should be the same as Band B in Burnley, or Band B in Wolverhampton?

Any person with shred of intelligence, even the council should be able to grasp the impact this reduction in salary with have on the families of these workers.
They must look for a better solution, which doesn't penalise anybody.
Some faces may change at the council, but the same mistakes are made, but it doesn't matter, it doesn't affect them.

I am in total support of the strike. These decent hard workers that do a job not many will do, have been given an ultimatum by BwD that they either take a cut of 3,000 a year in thier salaries, which are not that good as they are, or at the end of 90 days they will have no jobs. These people have families the same as everyone else, a reduction of salary especially on this scale, will have a serious impact on all of the families. Support these workers,it isn't going to be just strike action that will effect services other people in other departments that provide services in the borough have had the sam decision to make, sign a new contract for lower pay or loose your job.

Union Representitive for T.G.W.U.

It is true that the Job Evaluation commenced while the Labour Party were in control, it is being done all over the country Blackburn is just early to come to a conclusion.
The conclusion however was chosen by the "Partnership" in the teeth of opposition by the Labour Councillors. I understand three seperate votes were taken on the issue and the Coaltiion/Patnership
/ whatever they call themselves voted against the Labour view and continued with the current policy. These are the politicians you have recently supported and are in control of Blackburn with Darwen.
I suspect other Local Authorities will, in the future, face similar difficulties but I hope that local politicians will consider the effect of such an unhappy decision when they choose and look afterour Local Governemnt staff better than our council has donew despite getting teh best Financial settelment from Central Governemnt for years.

kate, what was the solution offered????
Was it not Labour whilst in control of the Council that actually instigated this Pay Review

The solution was to remove the 90 days notice of take a cut or lose your job.This threat was unacceptable bullying.As a result a lot of people have been forced to accept their contracts being torn up, and accept new ones with up to a 25% pay cut.
The next stage was to offer 100% pay protection for the first year, reducing by 25% each year, giving a cushion for four years. We believe that we would not need the four years and in fact we hoped to have all the issues resolved before the 100% protection ran out.

This would have allowed us to address the obvious serious flaws in the system. Why would nursery nurses, bin men, road sweepers or administrators be worth less in BwD than other neighbouring authorities.

Yet Directors and Assitant Directors and Deputies and Heads of Service be worth more.

Findings of the review should have been checked for accuracy and impact. This Council was desperate to be one of the first, rather than check the information they had.There was no impact assessment, no real discussion, some staff have had to go through appeals only to further lose.
Interestingly if prior to pay and reward you earned under 25K in Blackburn you were likely to receive a pay cut. But if you earned 25K or above you were less likely to be effected. I believe that this is the opposite in other authorities.

There was always going to be some winners and losers in any attemp to equalise wages, but it was anticipated that it would be at the higher end rather than the lower end. Addressing inequalities is about raising peoples standards from the lower end, not reducing them.

Perhaps someone needs to ask how they were going to fund the 10% bonus for Directors, most of which earn over 100K,

Let me give you some examples of these cuts.
Ground Maintenance from £14141, down to £ 12291. Refuse Collectors from £ 16459 down to £ 15153. Street Cleansing down from £ 15625 to £ 13338. Nursery Nurses down from £ 14493 to £ 12694. How does these salaries compare with the top people earning £ 140k, then asking for a 10% bonus for doing their job properly.Perhaps Councillors Lee, Rigby, Melia or Foster would like to deny these cuts.

yeah, but how hard do these people work? The grassed area at the end of our street hasn't been properly mowed in months. And it should be mowed every two weeks or so. Somethings up!

Thanks for your comments Kate, much appreciated. We need you back in power!!!
Your friend from the Shear Brow ward!

I couldnt agree more with an earlier comment, just how qualified are the councillors to make decisions, it seems to me that in all departments the ruling party makes the decision, often following the leader and the rest fall into line, I have seen councillors being woken up to vote, some democracy!

Seems to me that all this is probably a masterplan to get rid of all the workers so they can employ imigrants that will work for £5.50 per hr.
it really would not suprise me

Frankly I am appalled at this situation on two levels.

Firstly, I am in complete sympathy with the "losers" in the job evaluation programme, and am prepared to dump my uncollected rubbish on the town hall steps.

Secondly, the job evaluation programme, which the government decided not to handle centrally but leave to every local authority in the country, will have cost tax and council tax payers millions and millions of pounds.

Result? Another staggering waste of money which has led to the low paid being paid even less.

There are 5 of us in our house with a bin the size of a thimble.

Thanks Blackburn council we can now have loads of rotten waste in our garden for the children to play with.

Also its nice to know that the council will not collect any sidewaste in the following weeks, so we can all look forward to finding waste thrown in bushes and dumped in public places.
What else are people who cant drive supposed to do with their waste, Take it to the dump on the bus.

The council are a disgrace why should the low paid be paid less and the well paid more. It stinks just like my garden will in a few days time.

Good luck to the binmen

And SHAME on you Blackburn crappy council.

Stoolball you are a moron. Kate Hollern is not part of the Coalition. Nor is she Leader of the Coincil. Councillor Colin Rigby is the Tory leader and David Foster is his Liberal deputy,The Coalition consists of Tories ( 18), Liberals,(11) For Darwen (5). and three independants ( independant for various reasons, one including being done for benefit fraud.

This is not a political spin ..BUT I have to say thank you to Kate, you are the only one who listened, the only one who looked throughly into the situation, the only one who spoke up about the outrageous injustices of this financial farce. This may have initially been about equal pay, but BWDBC used it as an opportuntiy to reduce salaries and eventually jobs. Even the winner are not winners, cleaners had 50p an hour rise and then had their hours slashed and are now taking a cut of £40+ week! Women who are still getting paid less than a man doing the same job! 5 people all doing exactly the same job in the same department scoring different points. BWDBC cutting the wages of staff not actually paid by them (IE money coming from external funding for a member of staff are not being passed on fully to staff, what happens to that money are the council retaining some for their own pot?) BWDBC know this whole process is flawed, but will they stop and listen, NO... they like to be at the cutting edge no matter what it costs in misery for its loyal employees and the residents of the borough.We are not asking for favours, we are just asking for someone to listen and understand,admit that they are wrong and do someting about it.. and if it means strike so be it, (those of you who believe in fairness and democracy will support this action). And for all of you who have made postive statements in this colum thanks for the understanding and support.

You can all get on your high horses and thank kate but how many of you went out and voted last week. If you hadn't noticed, the coalition got voted back in for two years last week. Now there is nothing you can do, striking won't do anything as all they will do is privatise the bin collections and the new employers will be non-unionised. Change the record, you have lost, the coalition have won.

would you except a pay cut NO YOU YOU WOULDNT SO Y SHOULD WE,its about all council staff who are losing money and are looking for new jobs but were on the low end of the pay scale and to loose
£30 aweek is alot to loose.we dont want to strike cause were loosing money striking to, but there is only so much one can take,other unions pulled out of the strike but we cant afford to loose and excerpt this.we dont want to do this to the public but we cant sit back anymore and not forgetting that this is the one of the best council in the country.ITS THE WORKER WHO DOSE A GOOD JOB

ian wrote:
would you except a pay cut NO YOU YOU WOULDNT SO Y SHOULD WE,its about all council staff who are losing money and are looking for new jobs but were on the low end of the pay scale and to loose £30 aweek is alot to loose.we dont want to strike cause were loosing money striking to, but there is only so much one can take,other unions pulled out of the strike but we cant afford to loose and excerpt this.we dont want to do this to the public but we cant sit back anymore and not forgetting that this is the one of the best council in the country.ITS THE WORKER WHO DOSE A GOOD JOB

Your grammar is terrible! Typical - bet you are paid about 30k to send out letters demanding money that none of us can read. No wonder you have got a pay cut.

So My Bin is full. I will not get it empties for at least 2 weeks, I have no car and no means of getting to a council waste disposal centre.
Ant ideas what I should do with black bags full of foos waste for the next 2 weeks .
Mybe I will tale them on the bus to Bank Top, do you think I would be allowed?, or maybe I will make sure that there arte no identifying characteristics and I will leave them tied to a tree some where so that the rats can`t get then.
Or maybe, just maybe I will not give a s**t and just dump then in one of local councilors gardens

All I can say to you striking bin men - hang your heads in shame. You have left the pavement near the town hall an absolute disgrace with your litter. You want our sympathy but chuck your litter on the floor like slobs. You obviously do not hold much regard to your jobs otherwise you would not sit there and do it. Can you imagine a striking nurse sitting on her backside in the sun whilst someone nearby fell over? No. So why leave the place looking like a pig sty. Yes make your point, but my mother, who is 80 tripped on a bottle left near the steps of the town hall. If she had injured herself you can guarantee I would be straight on to a solicitor seeking damages from your union. Hang your heads in shame the lot of you.

us binmen here in bolton are 100% behind your binmen.
our sneaky council are about to do the same to us and we are dreading it!
good luck lads!!

the gardeners dont do much work anyway the binmen deserve more

My bin hasnt been emptied in two weeks now,apprently they could be striking next week as well.
I think that guy who was offering bin collections for three pounds will make some cash if he advertised his services to people

totally behind the binmen etc on this to have wage reduced to bring into line is disgraceful. As a way of helpin them get there point across how about WE ALL DUMP THE RUBBISH THAT ISNT COLLECTED ON THE TOWN HALL STEPS lets see how that would wash

whine whine whine. I've said it before and I'll say it again...if you don't like the pay then go find another job. For those that are crying about the loss of income and how it affects the families, I would suggest that they will more than likely be entitled to claim tax credits anyway, being on such a "LOW WAGE!!". Therefore, no harm done, eveyones a winner baby, so get those high vis vests back on you scrotes and come and empty the bins. You know whats gonna happen if you don't....people are just gonna dump it anywhere ande everywhere and eventually you are gonna have to clean it anyway....put the dummy back in and do the job you are being paid for.

I say get the hard working Poles on the job, these are mega wages given the area + full pension contributions while the rest of us in the real world pay more for less get these contraacts out for tender then they will realise they were on gravy street - make my coucil tax work better cut the costs by geeting third patry bidders

I presume Tony just lives For Darwen, perhaps you could bring some workers from your bathroom factory in China. Then you would complain about all the immigrants taking Darreners jobs, and Mr Teflon Melia comes to the rescue again. Why don't you Foster and Rigby face the real world. These are hard working people being asked to accept just above minimum wage for a dirty job no one else would take. With the threat of take it or leave it. You lot make me sick

Gloria Owen wrote:
All I can say to you striking bin men - hang your heads in shame. You have left the pavement near the town hall an absolute disgrace with your litter. You want our sympathy but chuck your litter on the floor like slobs. You obviously do not hold much regard to your jobs otherwise you would not sit there and do it. Can you imagine a striking nurse sitting on her backside in the sun whilst someone nearby fell over? No. So why leave the place looking like a pig sty. Yes make your point, but my mother, who is 80 tripped on a bottle left near the steps of the town hall. If she had injured herself you can guarantee I would be straight on to a solicitor seeking damages from your union. Hang your heads in shame the lot of you.

Are you trying to stupidly suggest that the only folk outside the town hall were those on strike? You very stupid woman, what planet are you living on? It would have been interesting had something happened to your dear mum your chances of legal success. More like your solicitor probably would have you sectioned in a mental hospital. I was in town today and saw more public then staff with the protestors plus other workers (not strikers) were having their lunch in the sunshine and guess what .... leaving their rubbish on the benches etc. Get a grip woman!

get a grip wrote:
whine whine whine. I've said it before and I'll say it again...if you don't like the pay then go find another job. For those that are crying about the loss of income and how it affects the families, I would suggest that they will more than likely be entitled to claim tax credits anyway, being on such a "LOW WAGE!!". Therefore, no harm done, eveyones a winner baby, so get those high vis vests back on you scrotes and come and empty the bins. You know whats gonna happen if you don't....people are just gonna dump it anywhere ande everywhere and eventually you are gonna have to clean it anyway....put the dummy back in and do the job you are being paid for.

Are you offering to swap jobs? You are such a pathetic numpty. Who do you pays for these benefits (tax credits etc.)? The tax payer, like me, and you want these staff to become a benefit scroungers. All it takes is for the council bosses to hit the higher earners instead of these low paid staff, everyone is happy baby! Now you go and get your dummy and get mummy to put you to sleep!

To all you ignorant people out there. Obviously you have no idea about local government and in depth politics. BwD could not care less about thier employees. Frank, Gloria, get off the backs of the backbone of blackburn.This local government is screwing everyone for what they are worth. No one is moaning or wingeing. Blackburn with darwen have woven contempt in thier policies "valuing Employees" This is how they value people, by subjecting them to the depths of depravity.I pay council tax, the bin men pay council tax, no one is exempt. Get off the backs of the true workers, who are not leaches living off benefits, and are trying to keep thier own families above the poverty line.

Lorraine.

At least there is one union, TGWU/Unite, that cares about its members being robbed blind. The GMB ignored its BwD members' wishes by suspending the strike but is still supporting strikes at Leeds. Why? Unison doesn't seem to care much, presumably because a lot of its members are winners.

I thought all unions were supposed to protect their members' pay and conditions. Whatever happened to 'unity is strength'?

I understand the predicament that the council staff are under, however, would it not be sensible to perhaps strike on different days of the week.

Anyone who has lost out this week (myself included) is also set to loose out next week this just seems ridiculous.

Householders who have their bins emptied on Thursday and Friday are taking the brunt of this industrial action. I'm all for industrial action but surely the inconvenience should be spread fairly among all residents of Blackburn with Darwen and not just concentrated on 40% of residents.

Cupaucu wrote:
I understand the predicament that the council staff are under, however, would it not be sensible to perhaps strike on different days of the week. Anyone who has lost out this week (myself included) is also set to loose out next week this just seems ridiculous. Householders who have their bins emptied on Thursday and Friday are taking the brunt of this industrial action. I'm all for industrial action but surely the inconvenience should be spread fairly among all residents of Blackburn with Darwen and not just concentrated on 40% of residents.

now call me cynical, but with this glorious weather and good nightlife on thurs/fridays, they are getting long weekends every week and living it up!!!! lets all have thurs fri sat sun off.

get a grip wrote:

Cupaucu wrote: I understand the predicament that the council staff are under, however, would it not be sensible to perhaps strike on different days of the week. Anyone who has lost out this week (myself included) is also set to loose out next week this just seems ridiculous. Householders who have their bins emptied on Thursday and Friday are taking the brunt of this industrial action. I'm all for industrial action but surely the inconvenience should be spread fairly among all residents of Blackburn with Darwen and not just concentrated on 40% of residents.

now call me cynical, but with this glorious weather and good nightlife on thurs/fridays, they are getting long weekends every week and living it up!!!! lets all have thurs fri sat sun off.

Get a grip moron. When on strike they don't get paid, so not exactly a long weekend. Go on then you have thurs & fri off without pay, no one is stopping you!

suprised you have opened your dirty mouth on this subject frank, normally we only feel your ugly presence when you are inticing racial hatred. maybe the overpaid bin men should come and clean out your filthy mouth. dirty barsteward

suprised you have opened your dirty mouth on this subject frank, normally we only feel your ugly presence when you are inticing racial hatred. maybe the overpaid bin men should come and clean out your filthy mouth. dirty barsteward

What makes all of this worse for me is that even when my bin IS collected I usually find in my 'thimble' household waste one bin bag remaining, and in my grey 'tardis' recycling bin several tins at the bottom remaining. Not the end of the world, but it feels like i'm being screwed a proportion of my 'collection quota' before the strikes!!!! Next door never recieved a new 'thimble' and have now got a backlog of 30 binbags but I can't do anything about it ... even environmental health haven't got back to me since the 9th of april.
I know there are plenty of nappies in there from last year (previous tenants who left waste the grey wheelie bin .... when it was still household waste)

BWD council ..... GET A GRIP!

Many a good comment and many where people do not understand this must be one of the only strikes where people are not asking for a raise just fair play and not to be de-valued, although it does seem that this strike is all about the bin men well it is not this effects many staff working for the council across a wide range of services and if other unions had joined in we would have seen a massive impact on all services, although it says a angry work force of 50 gathered out side the town hall above if anyone had been down on THursday between 12 and 1pm they would have seen a strong presence of about 300 staff venting there anger which was great to see it is a pity the media was not there then. With stike action this week only set for FRiday it would be great to see more staff join in i know for many there union are saying not to support the strike but they cannot stop you during your dinner hour come and join us and please remember it is not just the bin men they get all the flack because it seems the only service which as immediate impact on the general public we are all going to suffer unless we make a stance now be there on Friday SORRY TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC FOR INCONVIENIENCE BUT IT SHOWS THE FEELING IS STRONG

I dont support the strike. All who are striking should work unpaid overtime to catch up with the filth they have left. Lets face it collection is not that great I have had my bin missed a few times and the streets are awash with rubbish. If you dont like your job Leave and if you find you wages low, thats because you should have worked harder at school, get used to it. Everone is taking pay cuts through high inflation so do us a favour get back to work and sort your mess out!!!!!!