Bury Council Boss Gets 'Social Isolation'!

by Brian Bamford

Who Has Priority? 

 Editor:  Yesterday Joe Bailey a retired street cleansing worker, wrote to N V the following letter in which he questioned the situation for refuse workers etc. in the light of the current coronavirus:

 

'Not wishing to stick my nose where it is not wanted and I know the Coronavirus alarm has to be treated with delicate caution. Having said that, I've heard nothing from the media on bin men , postman, tip workers carrying out their duties.

'I have had a quick look at council websites re COVID-19.

Bin men do not always wear gloves (cloth or PVC) when handling bins. They have to touch the same lifting gear (buttons etc).

'Then their hands are all over the cab. The viruses have a 48 hour life span on plastic surfaces according to the BBC. Obviously I don’t have a degree in public health - but a lot of bins are not very clean – whether the scum sustains the virus is open to question – even if the handle is wiped. Also members of the public touch the bins with their bare hands. Most go out on collection day. Bin men are not insured for work on private property.

'The bin men are bunched up in the cab. Street Cleansing staff are usually in confined cabs.

'The BBC presenters sit at least a metre apart in an open atmosphere.

'I know you know all this. I will be copying this to Hazards.

'It would be good if the council published the risk assessment on their websites.'

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When we contacted the Bury binmen we got the following response from a binman at Bradley Fold Waste Depot in Bury:

Hi Brian

'We had a meeting last week outside with his Lordship (Glenn Stuart - manager at Bradley Fold Waste Depot), to which he told us that we are priority workers at bury mbc (dont know if that's his words or someone further up the line).  So for the moment its carry on as normal and come in if you feel you are not affected. We asked about social distancing (this is why he had the meeting outside)yet we were still sent out with 3 crew members in a cab!!  So once again Bury mbc are quoting the advice yet ignoring it when it comes to the bins. Dont know if things will change tomorrow will let you know. The advice from Kent council you sent me sounds good advice.  He did however (you'll like this)end the meeting by telling us that his wife suffers from auto immune disease and from Friday last week, he will be self isolating for 12 weeks!!'

Fancy that!  In't it alright for some?

 ************************

A TALE of TWO TOWNS In the NORTH WEST

ROCHDALE: Sleeping Lions Led by Hyenas & Foxes
by Brian Bamford

IN its current budget set for 2019/20 Bury Council declared that it aimed to regenerate and create thriving businesses, and communities as part of its £16 million funding boost.  In Bury, every township in the borough will receive investment under plans approved by the council when it set its budget for 2019/20 on 20 February 2019.  Including £2.7 million to promote business growth.

One of the main projects in the town's announced budget was the 'investment of £1.3 million into Bury Market, to ensure that the town's "jewel in the crown" continues to be a major attraction'; it has recently been voted the Nation's Favourite Market.

At the same time as Bury Council is backing  its famous market so Rochdale Council is effectively reported as condemning its own market to the knacker's yard.

On Monday the 14th, October Rochdale’s 768-year-old market is set to close after town hall bosses have claimed it to be ‘no longer financially viable’.

Recently I approached some of the market stall holders, who seemed utterly dejected as they anticipated the closure of the market a week next Monday.  . 

The Rochdale council claims that over the last year, the number of traders regularly attending the market had halved and it is no longer financially viable.  There have been four days over the past year, including two Saturdays, when no traders turned up, and on nine others only one trader was present.

While I was talking to some of the stall holders an officer employed by the Council turned up, and defended the Council's decision saying that it was costing the Council money to keep the market going.  He said that Bury Market was different because it had a significant tradition.

But when I countered that Rochdale Market, now in the Town Centre, was in a setting amid fantastic architecture overlooking the town's magnificent Rochdale Town Hall, he had to agree with me.

More troubling was that he couldn't reassure me as to what the Council planned to do with the former Santander building which was now serving as a small indoor market.

Some people are complaining of inclement weather & want to be protected from the weather.  Yet I was in Salzburg (Austria) in mid-February this year, and we ate fish from a plate at a table in an open square in the town centre.  How do they manage to brave the icy conditions there?  And note we were eating fish on a cold day - in an inland city - far away from the sea.  How I wonder do these people in mitteleuropa manage it when folk in Rochdale can't?

There is clearly something profoundly lacking in the imagination of the bosses of Rochdale MBC, and why is Bury so much better at promoting its market?

Clearly, Rochdale is a town in which sleeping lions are being led by hyenas like Cllr. Allen Brett, and property speculators like Cllr. 'Two Votes' Faisal Rana.

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The Horror Stories of Agency Workers

 Agency Worker Binman Dies while sick on the job

UNTIL recently when the Unite union passed a policy decision last year the union had no proper policy on the employment of agency workers.  In January 2018, a scandal occured in Greater Manchester in Bury Council's waste depot at Bradley Fold when a manager and an agency worker was in a scuffle following a dispute in which the boss had dismissed the agency worker's appeal that after 8-years working full out as a refuse worker for Bury Council he should be taken on full time.

The local police were informed about the incident when the manager sporting a black eye contacted them.  Following further inquires the police asked the branch secretary for a crime number but Human Resources at Bury MBC said the refuse manager, Glenn Stuart, had reported the incident and only he could supply the crime number and Mr. Stuart faled to reply to a union request for more information on this case.

The agency worker had told the local Unite branch secretary that the police wer reluctant to act because it was only his word against the manager and there were no other witnesses as the incident occured in the office of the manager and the blinds were down.

London Death of a Binman

On the 25th, July, a 45-year-old man became ill while labouring on a shift on a Veolia refuse lorry whe temperatures hit 37C.  The man, who has not yet been named, working for only his second day on the job collapsed while emptying bins in Thornton Heath, south London.  Private Eye reports that the man 'wasn't a Veolia employee, but had been hired in as cover from an agency.'  Also neither Veolia nor Croydon council made any public statement about the death until they were force to do so by the local media.

Local anecdotal reports from the staff of Veolia has suggested that the lad had been feeling unwell and had rung up his spervisors to ask if he could go home,  It is alleged that he was warned that if he didn't finish his shift, he wouldn't be given further work.

Despite this a later announcement  issued to the Croydon Guardian newspaper by Veolia now contradicts the earlier statement.  Veolia's new story has been changed to say that the agency worker was taken ill 'without warning'.  Private Eye reports that so far Veolia's PR word spinners have refused to explain why they changed their story.

********************

Dodgy Jobs & Precarious Employment

by Brian Bamford

AT the 5th Policy Conference of the Unite union last July, two motions were carried calling for campaigns to 'ensure that all workers employed on temporary, permanent, or fixed term contracts or through agencies should have their rights and protections from the first day of employment...'

These policy changes followed an incident at Bury MBC's waste depot at Bradley Fold last February*, in which an agency worker querying his own rights and status with the manager ended up in a altercation in which the manager got a black eye.  That agency worker had done 8-years on the bins in insecure employment; a binman at Rochdale MBC, we learn, had done 15-years in the same situation.

Other workers on the bins at the Bury Depot, believed that there was a cover-up about who struck the first blow.  The matter was reported to the police but later dropped.

Concern a year ago was triggered by the liquidation of Carillion in January, but after the dramatic event at Bradley Fold the Bury Unite Commercial Branch accused the Union of 'being asleep at the wheel'. 

Since the Bury Unite Branch issued a series of Freedom of Information requests about the goings on in Bury MBC with regard to agency workers, the bosses have started taking on staff on 6-month temporary contracts.   The worry is that the though the permanent staff on the bins in Bury are mainly in the union few, if any, of these temporary workers are.

What is now being demanded by the Unite union now is to establish that if a worker is under the control or direction of a company like Bury MBC, then that worker will be deemed to be an employee and enjoy all the rights that status infers.

Read more:  
* northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/2018/09/lovely-black-eyes-agency-workers.htm

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Lovely Black Eyes & Agency Workers

by Brian Bamford
 Health & Safety in the Waste Manager's Office?

PEALS of laughter greeted the announcement at a meeting of the Unite Greater Manchester Activists last February, that a waste disposal manager had ended-up sporting a black-eye after an interview with an agency worker at Bury Council's Bradley Fold Waste Depot.  Last January an agency worker had been querying his own status, having been 8-years a temp working for Bury MBC on insecure tenure and unable to get a mortgage with a wife who’d just given birth.

The complaining agency worker, who'd done an 8-year unsecure stint, told Northern Voices that Mr. Stuart had claimed in justification that there were agency workers in other local authorities in Greater Manchester who had done up to 15-years as agency workers.

No-one knows for sure what took place next in the office of the waste manager, Glenn Stuart, but there seems to have been an altercation which resulted in a complaint to the police on the 23^rd, January from Mr. Stuart who ended up with a black-eye. Northern Voices contacted the Greater Manchester Police in April, and asked if the police were investigating this as an allegation of common assault and requesting the crime or log number on this case?

Although it's clear that this case was reported to the police it seems that it turned out to be 'one person's word against another', because we're told that Mr. Stuart keeps the blinds closed in his office.

The secretive Mr. Stuart has a thing about privacy, and doesn't like the fact that in 2016 some folk in Bury took to photographing the town's overflowing bins.  At that time on May 1st, 2016 The Mail on Sunday journalist, Martin Delgardo, reporting on the management style of Stuart in a headline wrote: 'Bin tsar who slashed collections to one every THREE WEEKS tries to crack down on opposition by banning photographs of overflowing bins'.


However, after the 'violent' incident at Bradley Fold, a letter was sent out to binmen and other members of staff reminding everyone of the importance of health and safety and the Council's commitment to a safe environment.  There is talk of a 'them and us attitude' in the Bradley Fold waste depot, and some cynics among the workforce are muttering about a cover-up as to what really went on behind the Venetian blinds of the waste manager's office last January.

As the headline 'Bin Tsar' in the Mail on Sunday report in 2016 above suggests, Mr. Stuart has a reputation as something of a zealot in the realm of rubbish collection, which he seems to covert.  

As the Mail on Sunday stated he was then warning that he may get tougher still to force the people of Bury into recycling, saying:  ‘People have been given ample opportunity to fall in line. We need to formulate a plan of action in terms of enforcement.’

The scheme’s opponents claimed it had led to an increase in rat infestation.   With Iain Gartside, leader of the Conservative group on Bury council, saying:  ‘It’s an absolutely disgrace, with overflowing bins and increased fly-tipping.’

Meanwhile in last week's Bury Times the leader of Bury Council, Labour Councillor Rishi Shori said:  'Fly-tipping is a growing problem in the borough, although the council has allocated additional resources to tackle the problem in three main ways, focusing on prevention:  the installation of CCTV cameras in fly-tipping hotspots, enforcement and, where possible, by removing fly-tipped items, although this is becoming increasingly more difficult due to the budget pressures we are under.' 

Recently we can't help but notice that the 'installation of CCTV cameras in fly-tipping hotspots' has had the consequence of shifting the flytipping from the town centres and urban areas of Bury to the more posh, leafy zones like Tottington and Stubbins.  No wonder the Tories are upset.

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By-election as Nick Parnell becomes Unite Official

8th June 2017

Radcliffe East ward by-election

THE Radcliffe East ward by-election will take place today, the same day as the general election.
The seat is up for grabs after the ward’s former councillor Nick Parnell stood down after seven years in the post to take up a role as a full time official with Britain’s biggest trade union, Unite the union.
The four candidates for the by-election are Robert Graham for the Liberal Democrats, Nicole Haydock for the Green Party, Karen Leach for Labour and James Mason for the Conservatives.

Waste Disposal in Manchester

THIS week, it was reported that waste handling in Greater Manchester is to be taken back into public ownership.    The Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) has told Viridor, and its joint venture partner John Laing, that it is terminating the region’s long-term waste contract.

On the 4th, May, Robin Latchem, the editor of 'Material Recycling World' [MRW], wrote:

'It was one of the worst-kept secrets in the sector that the GMWDA and Viridor-Laing partnership was on the rocks.'

Back in February, the Greater Manchester Authority raised concerns with Viridor Laing over the progress being made on these works, including 'significant rusting issues' in the mechanical and biological treatment plant tanks and the in-vessel composting facilities.

The authority’s relations with Viridor Laing over the 25-year, £3.8bn private finance initiative deal became even more frayed in recent months, as Costain continued with repairs to some of the 42 facilities.

At that time, in February, it was reported that a trading update from parent company Pennon showed that the construction contractor Costain was making modifications at some facilities servicing the 25-year, £3.8bn private finance initiative (PFI) contract with Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA).

The Greater Manchester Authority approved the termination of the contract at a meeting last week. This comes several months after the waste authority revealed that it was ‘not satisfied’ with the status of the contract, and had been seeking ‘significant savings’ through the deal (see letsrecycle.com story).

The Pennon Group – the parent company of Viridor – has noted that there are provisions in the PFI contract for compensation to be paid to Viridor and John Laing on termination.  And, in a statement issued on the 2nd, May, Pennon claimed that the Authority’s exit from the contract is due to ‘financial challenges’ caused by prolonged austerity.

These concerns prompted the authority to decided to exit the PFI deal.

The company has stated:  'Discussions and negotiations are now expected to progress over the coming weeks as we work with GMWDA to ascertain the implications. There are provisions in the PFI Contract for compensation to be paid to Viridor and John Laing on termination.'

The contract involved the development and operation of a total of 42 facilities – totalling more than £600 million – for the management of waste from Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside and Trafford councils across the Greater Manchester area.

The decision to bring an end to the contract comes eight years after it was agreed. GMWDA – which described itself as England’s largest waste disposal authority – signed the long-term waste contract with Viridor Laing in 2009 at a value of £3.2 billion over the course of its 25-year lifespan.

And with this termination of the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal's contract one pundit commented;
'This looks like the beginning of the end for long term all encompassing local authority contracts that presumably lack flexibility to cope with the world as it changes fast.'

Bullying, Positive Behaviour & Culture

ALMOST a year ago, a report was disclosed to the Bury Times that claimed one in ten council staff at Bury MBC had been bullied in the last 18-months up to March 2016, and a quarter felt unable to cope with their work demands.
Last Monday (23rd, January 2017), a body entitling itself the Positive Behaviour Task Force met to consider the situation.
The Bury Positive Behaviour Task Force is in theory composed of representatives of the unions UNISON and Unite the Union, as well as representatives of management and HR (Human Relations).  Initially the Unite union which is the biggest union at Bradley Fold Waste Depot, was not invited to participate on this Task Force, more recently however, after complaints from the Unite Commercial Branch, a full time officer was incorporated onto the Task Force but has yet to attend.
In a response to a question about the level of alleged bullying up to March last year a Council spokesperson said:  'The Council takes any allegations of bullying and harassment very seriously and we place the utmost importance on dignity and respect for all our employees... (I)n response to this question 26 Dignity at Work complaints have been investigated in the past three years (6 since April 2015) and there have been 18 cases which have been handled via the mediation route (4 since April 2015).'
The spokesperson then added:
'In terms of taking action, a positive action taskforce has been established along with an Employee focus group to make our policies work effectively on the ground in practice.  We have a further survey planned for the autumn which will be anonymous as are all of the staff surveys we carry.'*
Speaking to the Bury Times (2nd, March 2016), Labour Councillor, Sandra Walmsley, said:
'I don't think there is a culture problem at the council with bullying.  If that was the case, we would have known about it before the survey.... I am hoping the taskforce will get to the bottom of this issue.'
At Bradley Fold Waste Depot there has been various complaints of forms of harassment over the last decade or so, yet at the time of writing the Unite union which represents the bin-men has not had an update or as yet seen any of the minutes of the meetings of the Positive Behaviour Task Force.  Nor, as yet, has the Bury Unite Commercial Branch representing the Bury bin-men seen the results of the 'further survey planned for the autumn (2016)' promised by Bury MBC.
This must be troubling.  
*  https://councildecisions.bury.gov.uk/documents/.../Questions%20responses%20web.p

Bury Bin Boss Bans Bad Publicity!

Daily Mail reports on how Labour Council Clamps Down on Truth

HE is the man behind the UK’s first three-weekly rubbish collection service, a scheme that has left angry residents picking their way through stinking heaps of refuse. 

And now Glenn Stuart, waste ‘tsar’ for Bury, Greater Manchester, has revealed how he cracked down on negative publicity for the controversial scheme – by trying to stop photographs like (the one below) of the town’s overflowing bins.

Mr Stuart’s positive spin on his unpopular decision has gone down well in the waste-collection world.  At a conference in London last week, he was applauded by local authority executives as he boasted:

‘Any problem was nipped in the bud.  We didn’t allow photographs of overflowing bins.’

He claimed this had been achieved by showing families how to deal more efficiently with their rubbish.

But campaigners said the Labour council had tried to banish damaging images by warning people that only those bins where the lids closed fully would be emptied – a threat that had forced some families to keep rubbish indoors until the dustcart’s next visit, or take it to the tip themselves.

And despite Mr Stuart’s attempts to impose a positive spin, local activists have shared with The Mail on Sunday these pictures of Bury’s rubbish piles, two years after the scheme was introduced.

Jason Turner, who organised a 6,000-signature petition against the idea, said:

‘The council has duped the public all the way along and this latest news smacks of a cover-up. I’m all in favour of recycling but I’ve been making several trips each month to the tip since this scheme started. I’m doing the council’s job for them.’

Last night, an unrepentant Mr Stuart warned that an emptying service every three weeks – already adopted by other councils – would soon be standard practice across Britain, adding:

‘I have had lots of requests for information from colleagues in other authorities.’

And he warned that he may get tougher still to force the people of Bury into recycling, saying: ‘People have been given ample opportunity to fall in line.  We need to formulate a plan of action in terms of enforcement.’

The scheme’s opponents claim it has led to an increase in rat infestation.  Iain Gartside, leader of the Conservative group on Bury council, said:

‘It’s an absolutely disgrace, with overflowing bins and increased fly-tipping.’

Despite Mr Stuart’s attempts to impose a positive spin, local activists have shared the above image with The Mail on Sunday of one of Bury’s rubbish pilesRead more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3567680/Bin-tsar-slashed-collections-one-THREE-WEEKS-tries-crack-opposition-banning-photographs-overflowing-bins.html#ixzz47bjt5PZs
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3567680/Bin-tsar-slashed-collections-one-THREE-WEEKS-tries-crack-opposition-banning-photographs-overflowing-bins.html#ixzz47bdC1gdS

Some Consequences of Bin Collection Cuts

Letter to the Rochdale Observer; published 2nd, April 2016:

28th, March 2016.

 

Dear Editor,

 

The news that the number of bin complaints in Rochdale have nearly doubled in the three months since three-weekly bin collections began last October, ought not to come as a surprise (see Rochdale Ob. Sat. 26^th, March 2016).    Over a year ago my Bury Unite Commercial Branch predicted that there would be an increased in missed bins owing to overflowing bins with raised bin lids, and that there would be rise in side waste and fly-tipping. 

 

This kind of thing is happening throughout Greater Manchester; two weeks ago in the Heywood Advertiser (10^th, March 2016) there were reports of residents calling for a ‘clampdown’ on fly-tipping in Heywood , and in the Bury Times earlier this year there was coverage of a Freedom of Information request from me which showed that complaints about vermin in Bury had increased by 18.16% in the first year of three-weekly collections by Bury MBC up to November 2015.  Bury MBC being the pioneer council in cutting bin collections of non-recyclable material.

 

In Bury, the council has blamed the public for failing to dispose of their rubbish properly, but at a full Rochdale council meeting earlier this year Councillor Peter Rush complained that the public were slow at grasping the process of recycling, and that he hoped that the younger generation would educate their parents in good environmental practice.   Despite these troubles the Rochdale Council bosses are still claiming '[t]he new bin collection service has been a great success'.

 

Yours sincerely,

Brian Bamford:  Secretary of Bury Unite Commercial Branch North West 353.

Local Vermin & the Bury Times!

Dear Editor (Bury Times),

WHILE members of the Bury Unite Commercial Branch welcomes the letter of support from Councillor Dorothy Gunther (Opinion Thursday, Feb. 11^th, 2016), we fear that the concerns of  binmen, councillors and residents about the increased sightings of vermin in Bury since the introduction of the new bin collection scheme will not have any impact unless we all speak more loudly about the dangers.   This will require something of a campaign in the forthcoming months.

Naturally, the vermin of Bury do not have a vote, but if they did, surely they would vote for the Labour councillor who pronounced in July 2014 that ‘There is no evidence there will be a detrimental impact on public health such as vermin, unpleasant smells and fly tipping’ as a consequence of the new system. 

Politics often involves some self-deception, and political wishful thinking; consequently the Labour leaders in Bury have been more inclined to listen to managers and officials, who may wish to promote their own agendas, rather than hear the views of their own rank and file binmen.   The citizens of Bury deserve better than this.

Yours sincerely,

Brian Bamford:  Secretary of Bury Unite Commercial Branch

Bury Council blame public for rat rise

The report below is taken from

 today's Bury Times (the headline is ours),
and is the result of a Freedom of Information

request by the Bury Unite Branch:

RATS are being spotted more often because bins are being emptied less often, union bosses claim. Leaders of Bury Unite commercial branch, which represents bin men who work across the borough, made a Freedom of Information request to Bury Council asking about vermin complaints before and after three-weekly bin collections were introduced in October 14.
In the 12 months up to the change there were 1,514 complaints, compared with 1,789 in the 12 months after.

The branch's secretary Brian Bamford said:
'This represents a 18.16 per-cent rise since the change. What the public deserve is some honesty from Bury Council about the downside of what is happening when they introduce changes to like the three-weekly collections.  There must be no suggestion of a cover-up on these matters.'
Mr Bamford was referring to previous comments made by Elton councillor Susan Southworth when she said:
'There is no evidence there will be a detrimental impact on public health such as vermin, unpleasant smells and fly tipping.'
One bin man, who asked not to be named in fear of losing his job, said:
'There are definitely more rats and flies now.  I don't think they can solve the problem unless they go back to fortnightly collections.  When we are out on the rounds, we get complaints from people who say they are not getting value for money from their council tax.'
A Bury Council spokesman said there was no clear correlation between the frequency of collections and the number of vermin reports.
He added that complaints fell when fortnightly collections were introduced in 2012/13.
The spokesman said:
'There are a number of reasons why the number of incidents we deal with may have increased last year, such as having a mild winter.  Unfortunately, there are a number of cases where irresponsible people simply throw all their rubbish into the back street rather than disposing of it properly. This is in sharp contrast to the majority of residents, whose efforts have led to Bury having its highest ever recycling rate.  We thank them, and urge everyone to put the right stuff in the right bin.'
http://www.burytimes.co.uk/news/14252902.Bury_bin_men_say_they_are_seeing_more_rats_since_3_week_collections_were_introduced/ ),

Bury Times & Bin Collections

ON Thursday, a letter in the Bury Times was critical

of a claim made by Bury Council in the previous issue
that claimed that the Council had only had '18 formal
complaints' from the public, and that this suggested that
there was customer satisfaction with the local bin collections.

THE Manchester Evening News (MEN) on the 20th, October, ran a story entitled 'More than 10,000 complaints made about missed bin collection since start of year'.  The article referred to bins left unemptied owing to refuse collectors discovering overflowing or overweight bins or simply incorrectly used bins.  But while showing an increase in complaints the article warned that the data applied  'only to Manchester, Salford, Wigan, Trafford, Stockport and Tameside councils.  Bolton, Bury, Oldham and Rochdale said they couldn’t collate their figures to respond.'

Yet, somehow Bury Council managed to rustle up some figures shortly afterwards because Sarah Yates was able to report days later in the Bury Times on the 25th, Oct. 2015, that 'Bury Council chiefs have received more positive feedback about its three-weekly bin collections than complaints.'

Thus Bury Council, the first council in England to collect rubbish bins once every three weeks, is now able to announce according to the Bury Times that 'whilst it received 18 formal complaints, there were 65 compliments registered since the grey bin collection regime began a year ago'.

Consequently, those Jeremiah's like NV, some binmen and local residents, who voiced their concerns of overflowing bins, rat revivals and insect infestations have now seemingly been proved wrong.  Indeed, now councils like Rochdale and elsewhere have eagerly followed in the footsteps of Bury MBC.

The question remains as to why Bury couldn't collate their figures in time to respond to the MEN Freedom of Information request a few days earlier?  Especially given that the number of negative complaints at merely 18, were so tiny compared with almost everywhere else?  Surely they can count up to 18?

In the current Bury Times, Ian Coates from Radcliffe, declares:

'FOLLOWING the story in last week's paper about the three-weekly collections and the council claiming to have had only 18 formal complaints, they are in cloud cuckoo land.  If they actually think people want the three-weekly collections they are deluded.  They are seeing whet they want to see.  Why do they not go on to Facebook and look what the people of Bury and Radcliffe are really saying.'

Only a week ago an ex-policeman was voted into the Tottington Ward of Bury as a conservative councillor, and he fought on the platform of restoring more regular collections of grey bins.

 



Missed Bins in Greater Manchester

THE troubled Bradley Fold Waste Depot in Bury was not able to 'collate their figures to respond' to a Freedom of Information request to Bury Council for the figures showing the number of complaints in the borough about missed bin collections.  Last Wednesday the Manchester Evening News ran a report which showed that there had been 'more than 10,000 complaints over missed wheelie bin collections received by councils in Greater Manchester this year' so far.


Bury, Bolton, Oldham and Rochdale councils had said 'they couldn't collate their figures to respond'.  Manchester City Council shows the worst level of complaints with 3,169 complaints this year, compared with 2,560 last year.


The Manchester Even News says:  'the situation seems to be getting worse as according to the figures, just 8,033 reports were submitted for the whole of last year.'  It's only late October up to now.


The trade union, the Bury Unite Commercial Branch, has been warning for the last two years that the position will deteriorate owing to the decision by councils like Bury and now Rochdale etc, to reduce the number of rounds and regular collections.


Sources close to the councils in Greater Manchester tell us that because of the reduced collections that there is more side waste being left of the streets and of course more fly tipping. 

Bury Unite's Ethical Stand

Struggling Against Surveillance & Blacklisting

FROM about 2005, the Bury Unite Commercial Branch became involved in a dispute with Bury Council when the T&G shop-steward at Bradley Fold Waste Disposal Depot, Joe Cleary, was sacked on the pretext of accepting a bribe for the removal of some trade waste:  Bury Council at that time, used a security officer to use a hand-held cam-corder to film a working team of Bury bin-men under the RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act).  The bribe which the sacked bin-men team were alleged to have accepted from an Asian shopkeeper was a bottle of Strawberry Volvic. 

In the end Bury MBC spent a large sum on legal costs fighting to dismiss the men and finally ended-up settling by paying a five-figure sum to Mr. Cleary.  The Bury branch of what is now Unite backed Joe Cleary throughout his fight with the Council, as did the Unite union officer Kathy Rutherford. 

I well remember talking to Kevin Coyne, the then North West regional officer of what is now Unite, and he encouraged me to continue our branch's struggle against surveillance.  He did say something of interest at the time when I told him that Bury Council was under Conservative control, he said 'Oh, that's good for us!' as it doesn't reflect badly on the Labour Party. 

Does party politics influence trade union activism at the top?  Are full time trade union functionaries less likely to oppose if a local Council is ruled by a Labour majority? 

Whatever the case this predilection for party politics didn't impact upon the moral integrity and ethics of the Bury Unite Branch.  After a militant shop steward such as Joe Cleary was dismissed using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, the Bury Unite branch put in a series of Freedom of Information requests to Bury MBC and critical reports followed in the Bury Times written by the journalist Dave Thomson, and another report in the Mail on Sunday.  Because of all the bad publicity arising from the Joe Cleary case it appears that Bury MBC is no longer using this type of crude covert surveillance.   

Because of this traumatic history of involvement in covert surveillance with Bury MBC, Bury Unite Commercial Branch has since taken to supporting the Manchester electricians in their own campaign against the covert surveillance with regard to the blacklist in the British building trade.   Bury Unite branch has done this through its affiliation to Tameside Trade Union Council.  Our latest involvement as a branch has been through the secretary's joint-authorship of the book 'Boys on the Blacklist',  and now the motion on ethical procurement presented to the North West Local Authority Regional Industrial Sector Committee (Risc) on the 5^th,  March 2015.   

Unfortunately, for some reason that has yet to be fully explained, the North West Local Authority Risc, under the distinguished chairmanship of Sidney Graves and Deputy Chair Nick Parnell, failed to be able to move the motion.   An investigation into what happened has now been set-up by the North West Finance & General Purpose Committee. 

It seems that in the real world that ethics and politics are not very comfortable companions.

Ethical Procurement's Never-Never-Land

Unite Casa Branch: 'Liverpool Council "Reneges" on promise'!

LIVERPOOL Casa branch of Unite has now joined Bury Unite Commercial Branch, the Greater Manchester Construction Branch,  and Tameside Trade Union Council in expressing its disappointment in the readiness of Municipal councils to impose ethical procurement on companies tendering for contracts.  A branch report in the Unite the Union North West Region Regional Committee record from the North west co-ordinator, Sheila Coleman, stated: 

'The branch is very disappointed that Liverpool City Council has reneged on previous agreement to implement an ethical procurement policy (EEP) in respect of companies tendering for contracts.'

This represents the latest set-back in the activist campaign, supported by the Blacklist Support Group and unions like the GMB, to get local authorities to adopt an ethical policy for awarding public contracts and to scrutinise companies that may previously have been affiliated to the Consulting Association and possibly have been involved in blacklisting of construction workers and trade unionists.

Liverpool City Council has argued that while it is 'dedicated to complying with ethical procurement for its own workforce, it cannot impose this on outside contracts'.  

 

Bury Councillor Nick Parnell

This seemed to be the reasoning used by the Bury Labour councillor, Nick Parnell (see photo), when, at the Local Authority Risc meeting on the 5^th,March 2015, he appeared to opposed a similar motion on Ethical Procurement presented by my Bury Unite Commercial Branch: it now turns out that Bury MBC has a contract with Carillion (see post on this Blog 'Get me Mr. Toasty').  While at Tameside MBC, a long-time Labour Council, and its leader Kieran Quinn, has been in the forefront of awarding contracts to companies that have been accused of blacklisting like Carillion.  Labour leader, Mr Quinn, is also prominent on the Greater Manchester Pension Fund which is also in awarding contracts to these companies.

Trade unionists in the North West are concerned about what is happening, and the Liverpool Casa Branch is planning to host an ethical procurement conference in the near future.  Some, however, seem to object to us publicising this failure of local authorities to process ethical procurement policies against companies that have been accused blacklisting, and at present one of the administrators on our Northern Voices' Blog is the subject of an investigation.  

Nick Parnell's Pious Proposal

Blacklisting & Bury MBC: 'Get Me Mr. Toasty'

 
Councillor Nick Parnell

BURY Council as part of its mission to 'Raise Awareness of Affordable Warmth and Fuel Poverty' has contracted with Carillion, a company now facing charges of blacklisting building workers in the High Court, to roll out a program of providing winter warmth to the most needy areas of Bury.  This is all part of the Greater Manchester Green Deal that is currently developing.  The four high priority areas have been identified as Bury East, Moorside, Radcliffe East and West, Redvales.

 

Bury Council ranked first out of Carillion's three Local Authority partners:  Manchester City Council and Trafford Council are also involved with Carillion.  A report from Bury Council states that during 'Bury Light Night ... Mr Toast was wrapped in an energy efficient LED lighting to fit in the theme of the night [and] carried out doorknocking ... with the support of Groundwork, GMEAS (Greater Manchester Energy Advice Scheme) and [the blacklist company] Carillion.'

 

As all this exciting activity with Mr Toast and Carillion was going on at various Bury locations around Ramsbottom and beyond, the Labour controlled Bury Council was considering a proposal presented by the Labour Councillor Nick Parnell which notes:

'The practice of blacklisting is illegal, immoral and reprehensible.  In some cases this practice has led to long term unemployment for those who have been “blacklisted” for nothing more tha representing their fellow workers. [and that] More recently, companies who are known to have blacklisted trade unionists are now tendering for and procuring public contracts throughout councils in England.'

 

Councillor Parnell's proposal called upon Bury Council 'to take such steps as are lawful... and to refer this matter to the Leader and Director of Resources and Regulations to consider how best the objectives of the motion can be taken forward.'

 

So much for an ethical procurement policy in Bury when it comes to Mr Toast and Carillion.

Unite Committee Bin's Blacklist Motion

ORCHESTRATED by the Chair, Sidney Graves, this month, the Local Authority Regional Sector Committee (Risc) of Unite the Union in the North West, binned a motion from the Bury Unite Commercial Branch calling for local Councils in Greater Manchester to halt the awarding of contracts to companies that have been implicated in blacklisting of trade unionists in the British building trade.  Sources close to  Unite have told Northern Voices that Mr. Graves is currently seeking a full-time paid  position in the union and 'does not want to ruffle any feathers'! Certainly throughout the meeting, the Chair made it clear that he had a pressing engagement and wanted to get away by 1.30pm. 

Representatives of Bury Unite at the Liverpool meeting expressed astonishment when the Risc meeting Chairman asked if anyone wanted to discuss the motion on blacklisting and this was met with the silence of the grave.  Shortly before the Chair put this to the meeting Nick Parnell, representing Unite at Manchester City Council, told the meeting that as a Councillor on Bury Council that he had already moved a motion on Bury MBC adopting an 'Ethical Procurement Policy' with regard to awarding contracts in April 2014.  The implication being that Bury Council didn't need another policy on the awarding of contracts to building companies, but he said there may be difficulties in getting Manchester City Council to agree; possibly because the central Manchester Council and figures like Councillor Kieran Quinn the leader of Tameside Labour Council, are already in bed with companies like Carillion through the Greater Manchester Pension Fund.   

Two years ago, another Manchester Council -  Salford City Council also Labour, was challenged with a Unite demo when despite assurances from Ian Stewart that it was against blacklisting when it awarded a contract to a company that had been affiliated to the Consulting Association, a body proved to have been facilitating a blacklist.   

Since the Bury motion was unceremoniously binned by the Unite Risc in Liverpool, Northern Voices has been approached by people in Camden in London, who claim that Ethical Procurement Policies against blacklisting have been adopted down there and that this hasn't stopped contracts being given to dodgy companies.  Furthermore, Northern Voices  has seen the Ethical Procurement policy adopted by the Labour controlled council Bury MBC, and  we feel that it is not fit for purpose.   

Bury Unite Commercial Branch has a particular interest in the under-hand nature of the blacklist and sly surveillance, because ten-years ago a Unite shop-steward at Bury Council and two other binmen were sacked following the use of a hand held camcorder by a council employee under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to spy of the workers.  The case did not go to Court and the Council ultimately settled out of Court following an expensive award to the shop-steward. 

But remember most of the councils in Greater Manchester that are guilty of being in bed with companies like Carillion are Labour Councils, and it may well be that Unite’s North West Local Authority Unite Risc sitting in Liverpool this month, may not have wanted this matter of Labour Councils awarding contracts to blacklisting companies airing as the election approaches in May.  Even the Blacklist Support Group is supposed to be looking forward to a Labour victory.  So the disgruntled members Bury Unite Commercial Branch should get their priorities right, calm down, and shut-up, until the great Labour leader Ed Miliband is ensconced in office in Downing Street.  And we can look forward to 5-years of a Labour Government.  Until then those who are blacklisted like the rest of us, will just have to wait for their salvation and the instalation of Labour Government under Ed Miliband.  Then perhaps all will be well, and even Mr Sidney Graves, the chairman of the North West Local Authority Risc may get his wish for some kind of stipend.

Bad Backs for Bury Bin-men!

BURY MBC this week denied that its newly imposed 3-weekly collections of grey non-recycable waste was resulting in more injuries to the Council workers.  This was after a spokesman for the local Bury Unite branch had claimed two operatives were off on the sick with a bad back and shoulder respectively.

A Bury Council spokesman told the Bury Times:
'The council has not seen an increase in injury to employees since the move to three-weekly collections.  All staff are trained in safe manual handling techniques and in instances where a bin is found to be too heavy to empty, crews are advised that it should be left and stickered.  This has always been the case and nothing has changed in this respect.'

A union leader, Brian Bamford, local Secretary of Bury Unite, had said:
'This week, a safety representative at Bradley Fold depot reported to me that since the new change to three-weekly collections there had been an increase in injuries.'

Mr. Bamford continued:
'Part of the problem arises from the binmen being forced to shift two bins at a time to complete their new rounds on schedual.  Doing this is contrary to the advice of management and the workforce safety representatives, but workers now feel they may be penalised, or even victimised, if they fail to complete their rounds on schedual.  In this kind of rat-race, younger workers are being played off against some of the older lads.'

The Bury Council admitted:
'The new service has required settling into but we refute any allegation that our valued workforce is victimised in any way.'

Amen, to that!

Petitions & Bury MBC

WHEN the man organising a petition against Bury Council's decision to cut the collection of grey waste from every two weeks to every three weeks failed to turn up at the last full Council meeting to present his petition of over 3,000 names, it created a bit of a dilemma for the authorities.  In the light of the non-attendance of the organiser of the petition it was decided, apparently by the monitoring officer and the Chief Executive, that the proper course would be to proceed to the next item on the agenda.

This approach was questioned at the time by the opposition Conservative group, and following an application under the Freedom of Information Act by Bury Unite Commercial trade union branch, it seems that at present there is no specific advice as to what to do in the circumstances where the person who ought to present the petition doesn't turn up on the night of the full council meeting.

Bury Unite trade union asked:
'At the full Council meeting of Bury MBC on Wednesday 10^th, September 2014 in the 'Council Summons & Agenda' document Book 2 at Item 5. of the Council Meeting Agenda entitled 'Petition' it was determined that as a petition had been received that fulfilled the criteria required that it ought to be'debated at Council'. But as the organiser of the petition was not present at the council meeting no debate was held because the solicitor acting for Bury MBC had advised that no debate should be held if the petition organiser was not present. I on behalf of Bury Unite Commercial Branch should like to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act for the Council to provide my branch with the precise wording of the advice given to the Bury MBC leader of the Council?'

It seems that the advice from the Chief Executive and the monitoring officer was verbal and not in writing, and therefore not covered by the Freedom of Information Act.  However, it seems that the decision to proceed to the next item has cause some debate and a working group will be meeting to discuss the problem next week.