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.
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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)