Battle of the bins

Good morning members — and welcome to this Thursday’s Tribune.

The rubbish disposal system is like breathing: something that you basically never think about, unless it goes wrong. But when it does — when your nose is blocked or your bin overflows — how can you think about anything else? Especially if it’s hot out and the bin bags start piling up in the streets. The stink from the windows. The scuttle of something you’re hoping isn’t rodents.

This is the grim prospect dangling over the city of Sheffield, as a bizarre three-way battle rages over our bins. What’s most curious about this dispute is that those involved don’t even agree on who is at loggerheads with who. In today’s story, we try to unpick the Gordian knot.

Your Tribune briefing

🔥 Five men, including a grandfather and a former soldier, were jailed for their part in the Rotherham riot yesterday, while the number of people charged has risen to 54. The court heard that grandfather-of-seven Michael Bailey told a police officer “that hotel’s getting burned down today” during the shocking disorder outside a hotel housing asylum seekers. South Yorkshire’s most senior judge, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, said he believes the incident will likely have “historic notoriety” both in the region and further afield.

🚔 South Yorkshire Police has been criticised for allowing police officers who commit misconduct to “quietly retire and then take up other public facing jobs” by withholding their identities from the public. Yesterday, the Daily Mail reports that two local officers who took part in “sexual activity” while on duty were sacked in a private hearing that press were banned from attending. When asked why this and another hearing were held in private, South Yorkshire Police said the chair of the misconduct panel had “been provided with information” that led to this decision.

🌳 This short piece in the Guardian explains why there are wild Mediterranean fig trees growing on the banks of the River Don. During the period when Sheffield was an industrial powerhouse, fig biscuits were a local delicacy and the seeds inside them passed through people’s digestive systems and into the rivers in sewage. Most local rivers were too cold for the Mediterranean seeds to germinate but the River Don was warmed by waste water from the nearby steel factories, allowing them to flourish.

Things to do

🎉 The biggest event of the weekend is the grand opening of The Tribune’s new home, Leah’s Yard. We’re in a small office upstairs at the Grade II-listed little mesters’ workshop, but the main attractions are Pete McKee’s new gallery (who will be giving away some free prints), Hop Hideout, Gravel Pit, La Biblioteka, Chocolate Bar, Mesters’ Market, Yard Gallery, Roots & Bloom, Kelham Barber and Dream Life Deli. Doors open on Saturday at 10am.

🎶 This bank holiday weekend, Orchard Square will be hosting a weekend of live music and entertainment in collaboration with the Leadmill. Taking place on Saturday 24th, Sunday 25th and Monday 26th August from 12pm, the three-day city centre festival is free and open to all. As well as lots of live music, there will also be family entertainment, a silent disco, and an array of great food and drink. For the full music lineup see the Our Favourite Places website.

🧑‍💻 On Saturday, learn to code as part of Site Gallery’s current Cyber Cafe exhibition. The beginner-friendly (aged 14+) workshop will teach you how to make your own music using Strudel, an open-source platform that enables you to make music through code. Participants will be encouraged to embrace error and to utilise the freedoms and limitations of code as a tool for creative expression. The two-hour workshop is completely free and begins at 11am.

Battle of the bins

Shane Sweeting, 52, has been a Unite the Union organiser for 15 years now and tells me he’s never seen a dispute quite like this. In some ways, he means that as a good thing. He feels many of Sheffield’s refuse workers are unusually fired up by the current tussle with their employer, Veolia. “The strength and solidarity is unbelievable,” he tells me. “It’s something I have not seen for a long time.” Earlier this month, during an initial five-day strike outside Veolia’s Lumley Street depot in Darnall, he claims there was something like a “carnival atmosphere” on the picket line. 

On the other hand, it’s obvious that Shane finds the current impasse unusually aggravating. All Unite wants, he explains, is to be recognised by Veolia as one of the trade unions representing its local workforce. It’s a necessary first step before Unite can negotiate on their behalf, and an agreement that the waste management company has been happy to make with Unite everywhere else in the UK where it is in charge of collecting bins. “It’s only Sheffield where it’s unique,” he says. He sees no reason why the company should refuse, given Unite claims 80% of its local staff have joined their union. “Veolia bears complete responsibility for the rubbish that will pile up across Sheffield because of its refusal to recognise Unite.”

Veolia, however, entirely disagrees. Their spokesperson insists that, actually, less than half of local staff have joined Unite and that the union which represents the majority of their workers is GMB, which the company has already formally recognised. According to Veolia and the full-page advert they placed in The Star, Unite is not really tussling with them, but is engaged in a “fight over membership” with GMB. The union’s refusal to admit this fact, one might suggest, is because scrapping with other trade unions violates the code of conduct drawn up by the national body Trades Union Congress (TUC). “We are calling for Unite the Union and the GMB to immediately engage with the Trades Union Congress to find a resolution,” a Veolia spokesperson adds, “so our people can keep delivering outstanding services to the people of Sheffield.”

So what does GMB have to say about it? At least to The Tribune, the answer is nothing. Not a word. Despite multiple calls and emails, the union has yet to respond to any questions or claims we put to them. Though Shane absolutely insists that his union is not in dispute with the GMB, it’s clear that he is personally wounded. “If we were in a similar position but the boot was on the other foot,” he says at one point, “we would be supporting GMB.” 

To those with no experience of workplace organising, the situation might seem mystifying. “Why don't the members just leave their current union and join GMB?” one resident wrote on the forum Sheffield Online, in response to the news of the first strike. “It seems like they are just making a mountain out of a molehill, when there is a potential solution.” 

Veolia insists it will be able to keep disruption during this latest strike to a minimum, something it managed during the first one earlier this month, thanks to non-striking workers putting in extra shifts to pick up the slack. However, it’s going to be a lot harder for the company to avoid delays this time around. That first strike only lasted from August 5th to 9th. This time, Unite’s members are refusing to work indefinitely, as long as it takes.