Sunday, June 12, 2011

Questions & Answers On Southampton's Bin Strikes

A useful website with Questions and Answers for residents on the current strikes in Southampton.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Surely every sinble employee working on bin collection isn't on strike? You state that over half of council staff have signed the new contracts- if this is so then why aren't these people working? ie why is it not possible to have at least some limited bin collection service, operated by those people who are not union members or who are on the new contracts?

Jeremy Moulton said...

We were very pleased that yesterday we reached agreement with the Unite union to have some council staff start to clear the bins from and around the city's tower blocks. My concern was that these were starting to become fire risks. We cannot take any chances with public safety. The next step is to start to clear the walk up blocks.

Anonymous said...

What is going to happen to all the money the council is saving from not paying the striking workers?
We pay our council tax for services which are not being full filled. With any other company this would be breach of contract and you would not have to pay the charges but we still pay a proportion to the council for bin collections that have not happened for the past 6 weeks for recycling and 5 weeks for household. We cannot not pay the council tax, will it just be swallowed up!

Jeremy Moulton said...

Natural justice would say that residents deserve a council tax refund for the misery that they have been subjected to.

Unfortunately the strikes are hitting the council's income, by targeting the itchen toll bridge and cark parking charges. The madness of this approach is that it simply adds to the financial difficulties of the council. A refund to 90,000 households simply isn't affordable and it appears also that it wouldn't be legal.

Hopefully after positive talks today and more talks tomorrow we are on track to reach an agreement with the unions. Bin men are now back to work for the next 4 days and we are also starting to clear the side waste (bin bags) across the city.

Anonymous said...

Despite them being back at work for 4 days nothing in this area of Shirley had been cleared and by now surely it should be our turn having had nno collections for 6 weeks. The smell is appalling. Dodging rubbish bags on the way to school and the pile on the corner of grove road is disgusting. It is a health hazard and nothing is being done.
I hate to think what is growing in our bins!

Anonymous said...

No bin collection for 6 weeks is a disgrace! I notice the business premises have had the "private" bin collections so why hasn't the council paid for them to collect the household rubbish!??

Fishter said...

As I understand it the council has its hands tied over the use of contractors to replace striking staff (except in the case of emergency situations like Health Safety and Environmental issues).

Simply put, they can't employ new staff to do the jobs of the strikers - it literally stinks.