Councillor Christine Gilligan Kubo, has spoken for Sheffield Greens in response to the petition brought to Sheffield City Council by members of Unite. The petition includes a request to bring privatised waste collection services back in house.
“When in power, the Lib Dems outsourced the city’s waste collection services in 2001. The contract was extended under a Labour Administration for 10 years and then for a further 1 year. The current contract ends in 2038.
Sheffield Green Party has consistently spoken out against privatisation of public services, especially those very long-term commitments to private, profit-making businesses.
Any surplus made from providing public services should not be syphoned off to further enrich wealthy private shareholders or to pay bonuses to company bosses who already earn eye-watering salaries. They should be ploughed back in to improve the provision or to reduce the prices for residents.
The neoliberal agenda of privatisation of public utilities initiated under Margaret Thatcher has not been a good deal for the public – look at the fiasco that has happened as a result of water privatisation.”
Outsourcing
“Sheffield Green Party did not support the outsourcing of the waste contract to Veolia, but we are where we are, and we all know it would not be feasible or financially possible for the Council to cancel the current contract. This would involve penalties running well into the millions and, as councils across the country are already struggling financially after years of Tory imposed austerity and the continuation of this under Labour, SCC cannot afford to purchase waste collection vehicles or pay operators to manage our waste if we cancel the contract.
To minimise the strike’s disruption, Veolia have rightly prioritised kerbside waste collection but have not been able to continue the bring sites recycling provision at supermarkets. We would like to see this service restored as soon as possible.”
Reduce – reuse – recycle
“Recycling is a key element of achieving net zero ambitions and is what people want. This important service has not been available since the start of the dispute. The fact that Sheffield has an outsourced waste collection is also the reason why kerbside collections of food waste are not happening in the city – despite it normally being a legal requirement at last. Commercial reasons also work against any sort of publicity campaign to reduce waste and consumption. There are many downsides to inflexible private-sector contracts.
This strike is not a dispute with Sheffield City Council but one that affects all the residents of the city. The strike is a dispute between two unions, GMB and Unite. Employees have the right to choose which union represents them so we urge Unite and GMB to get together and work out a positive way forward. Trade Unions play an important role in the workplace and their ability to protect workers rights is essential to a modern economy, but this feud between the unions does not look good and it is likely to make those people who do not support trade unions even more keen to abolish them altogether. So please, GMB and Unite, sort this out for the future of trade unionism and for the residents of Sheffield who have put up with this for far too long.”
