Reel Knewz and the Bin Men of Birmingham: A Garbage State of Affairs
First, a poem by James O’Brien…..
Bin Juice
Bin juice is the toxic residue which gathers in reservoirs,
In festering cavities which infiltrate whenever bins are full,
Whenever they are left standing to rot.
Drip, drip, it accretes to that mill race to the bottom.
Where maggot scabs take nourishment,
Where rats gather and take succour before brazening out the day,
To terrify the workers and the public with their beady eyes,
To terrify with long pink tails, mendacious cowards but still,
You’ll see them outside the best restaurants, in the alley,
They by their actions don’t want a deal but to live high on carcass,
Through trough of deliverance a hog of duplicity and indifference.
Ultimately the maggots drown in the broth, choked by shame,
The cold realisation that someone has to clear away the squalor filth.
It’ll be the bin men whose hands will rescue,
Who will have to invade the ecosystem of putrefaction?
It’ll be the bin men you come grovelling to, dead rat in hand,
Begging to make a deal before the summer.
As the filth disease rates begin to rise,
Your scabs won’t win it and neither will you,
We will prevail, we always do, now as always.
***
…..and next, a piece about the strike from Jack Clarke……
There’s a growing pile of bin bags in Britain’s second city, and they’re not just full of rubbish. They’re full of broken promises, slashed pay packets, and the festering consequences of political cowardice. This month, Reel Knewz pulled back the lid on the Birmingham bin strike with a new documentary episode that doesn’t just sift through the waste, it asks who dumped it there in the first place.
On Tuesday, May 20th, a new frontline opened in the battle for workers’ rights. With the support of Unite the Union organiser Claire Pedan, filmmaker Jack Clarke and the Reel Knewz team were granted access to document a day of action, one that saw striking bin workers interrupt a Birmingham City Council meeting both inside and out. What they captured is raw, unfiltered, and urgent.
In January this year, refuse workers in Birmingham began intermittent strike action after the Council announced plans to scrap the role of Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO), a job considered ‘safety critical’ by the workers. For 150 people, this meant a potential pay cut of up to £8,000. That’s not trimming the fat, that’s taking the bread off the table.
Then came the salt in the wound: the Council started hiring temporary agency workers, some of whom have been on insecure contracts for over a decade, earning up to £18.44 an hour, more than some permanent staff. And instead of resolving the dispute, management turned to divide-and-rule tactics, pinning equal pay claims against job cuts and cost-cutting rhetoric.
While the council spins a tale of transformation and financial necessity (remember, they effectively declared bankruptcy in 2023), the reality on the ground is stark. Drivers fear their jobs will be downgraded. Loaders are expected to take on more responsibility for less pay. And the WRCOs, whose role was to ensure safety and coordination on the road, have been erased from the new council vision entirely.
Because Birmingham City Council is Labour-run. And yet the same council has been accused of smearing its own workers in the press, dragging its feet on negotiations, and allowing unelected government commissioners to meddle in deals already discussed in good faith during ACAS talks.
When Unite finally received a formal offer last month, it wasn’t just late, it was watered-down. It didn’t protect workers from pay cuts. It didn’t secure the roles of drivers. It didn’t reflect anything close to justice.
And the workers saw straight through it. They rejected it overwhelmingly.
As culture workers fight for better pay and conditions, tensions in Birmingham’s ongoing bin strike highlight similar issues of trust and leadership. Council leader John Cotton has come under fire for allegedly being ‘missing in action’ during talks, facing doorstep protests, billboards, and even a confrontation in a city pub. Unite’s General Secretary has accused him of delegating critical decisions to unelected officials. The strike, now in its 12th week, echoes broader concerns: when those in power are absent from the table, workers and the public bear the cost.
This latest Reel Knewz episode, ‘Birmingham Bin Strikes: A Garbage State of Affairs’, might just be the most important thing you watch this month. It’s a story about bin bags, yes—but more than that, it’s about what happens when ordinary people are pushed too far, and decide to push back.
Watch it here:
And ask yourself: if this is how we treat the people who take out the trash, what does that say about the state of the nation?
