Unite regional officer Lee Wiggetts-Clinton speaks at rally against Birmingham City Council cuts and job losses

BirminghamWorld

We meet Unite regional officer Lee Wiggetts as a rally against Birmingham City Council cuts and job losses gets underway outside Birmingham Council House. Council members are about to hold an extraordinary meeting to respond to their effective bankruptcy.

Transcript

00:00 Okay, so we're out here today in solidarity, collective unions, based on obviously the

00:05 situation with Birmingham City Council and the 114 notice and the issue of bankruptcy.

00:10 What we can't do is sit back and let the faceless bureaucrats come in, dictate to our city,

00:16 dictate to the jobs, sell off the properties and such things.

00:19 All these properties, all these buildings, like the building behind, belong to the citizens

00:24 of Birmingham.

00:25 They don't dictate what they should be selling, what they shouldn't be selling.

00:28 They should have put their house in order a long time ago.

00:31 All we've ever requested from a trade union perspective is to put a robust system in place.

00:35 So in terms of a JEQ system, job evaluation, we're saying that they need to use a bespoke

00:41 system which is already in place, up and down the local authorities.

00:45 Nationally it's used, which is obviously the Green Book NJC terms and conditions.

00:50 We're saying that needs to be put in place to eradicate any issues with regards to equal

00:53 pay and to fix it once and for all.

00:56 We've been calling for this for many, many months, for years in fact.

01:00 We were pushing to get this problem resolved.

01:03 We were pushing to get a robust system in place to remove it.

01:06 What they've done, they've sat back and they've done nothing and now they want to blame our

01:09 members, their employees, they want to blame them for the mistakes which have been caused

01:14 by the local officers of the council.

01:16 Because I believe that that's been poorly managed and also obviously cuts from governments

01:19 and such things which have squeezed the money out of the councils that much.

01:22 They can't function correctly.

01:24 I don't believe that Birmingham should sit back and allow these to come in, dictate and

01:28 to attack our members.

01:31 Any attack on our members is a red line for you night.

01:33 So based on that, there will be a fight on their hands and we will go out to the membership

01:38 and if industrial action is needed, we will be prepared to do it.

01:41 We're not going to sit back and allow commissioners to come in and dictate this and that and to

01:46 start pushing our members around, dictating things on the job evaluation and such things,

01:52 the job descriptions, we can't allow that.

01:54 So we will fight.

01:55 From our perspective, we will fight.

01:57 Hence we're here today, we're showing solidarity to unite and if we come together, we'll fight

02:01 and we will fight to the end.

02:03 Balthastic, do you have any specific demands or expectations as it pertains to the meeting

02:09 today?

02:10 OK, so I want a message to all the councillors today.

02:13 Don't listen to everything that's being said in there and don't take it as pure truth because

02:17 we believe that some of the councillors have not been relayed the correct messages as in

02:22 monetary issues and such things.

02:24 Some of the councillors are already referring that they weren't aware of the situation just

02:28 a few months ago.

02:29 So the fact is, please ask the questions, please ask questions at the 114 notice and

02:35 don't just sit back and take it as a given, scrutinise it.

02:39 So look at the building in front of you, isn't it mecca bell?

02:43 We're here to fight, we're not going to stand back, we're not going to let faceless bureaucrats

02:47 come in and dictate to our members, dictate to the employers of the council and also dictate

02:52 to the public of what buildings they're going to set up.

02:55 These buildings belong to the public, they belong to our members who work within Birmingham

03:00 City Council.

03:01 We cannot sit back and let them dictate.

03:04 One message to these are here, if you want to fight, bring it on.

03:08 This is only a majority of the people we're going to bring.

03:11 We will bring in numbers and we will fight and we will go out without a fight.

03:15 So the message is people, let's stay strong, let's come together, let's work with the people

03:21 who we hope we will be working with, we hope that.

03:24 But the bottom line of it is, all we're asking for is a simple system to end this equal pay

03:30 issue once and for all.

03:32 All we're asking for is a job evaluation process, which is NJC, a gauge system which is proven

03:38 up and down the country.

03:40 It's already tried and tested by the unions.

03:42 We want to use that.

03:43 And that's all we've ever asked for.

03:45 Just give us what we want and we can end this.

03:49 People, thank you.

03:50 Thank you for all of you.

03:51 That sums it.

03:52 (audience cheering)

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