Fighting for union recognition in Sheffield

Mark Seddon reports on the eight month long strike of workers at the Veolia waste depot in Sheffield.

Workers at a Veolia waste depot in Sheffield have been on continuous strike for eight months and counting. The dispute, caused by Veolia’s refusal to sign a recognition agreement with Unite, led workers to begin their strike in August 2024 and they have been out on the picket line ever since.

Sheffield City Council, which has outsourced waste collection to Veolia, does recognise Unite, along with GMB and Unison. However, instead of adopting this tripartite recognition when outsourcing was completed in 2001, Veolia chose only to recognise GMB. In the years since, Unite’s membership at the Sheffield depot has increased so that almost a third of workers are now members of the union. The Unite fight for recognition is very much a grassroots campaign and, as the length of the strike demonstrates, Unite members are committed to the cause.

Veolia is a large multinational corporation that focuses its business on areas previously maintained by the state: waste, water and energy management. At a time of continuous government austerity, when councils across Britain are struggling financially, Veolia continues to profit from such outsourcing. While Sheffield City Council faces a projected overspend of £34 million for the 2024-25 financial year, Veolia made £11.7 million in profit from the city in 2023. Earlier this year, the Veolia CEO boasted that “2024 was an excellent year for Veolia [with] record current net income of €1,530 million, which has doubled in 5 years”.

 Yet workers in Sheffield have not benefited from the company’s financial success with average pay at Veolia’s Sheffield subsidiary falling by 22 per cent in real terms this decade. In early 2017, the local Labour-led Council did announce that it would terminate the 35-year Veolia contract as a cost-cutting measure. However, ultimately, the Council renegotiated the contract, rather than ending it completely and bringing the service inhouse.

Veolia does recognise Unite in other depots across Britain and, in fact, negotiated a recognition deal with the union in Sheffield at the end of last year. In December, company management drafted a collective bargaining agreement that Unite members voted on the picket line to accept. However, a week later, Veolia reneged and chose to pull out of the agreement at the last minute.

Despite this about-turn and Veolia’s general intransigence, Unite members have voted to continue all-out industrial action multiple times since the strike began, and renewed their strike ballot most recently in February. At the same time, a petition calling on Veolia to recognise Unite was circulated among all workers at the Sheffield depot and collected nearly 150 signatures, demonstrating that even workers who are not Unite members wish to see the union recognised.

In addition to the strike itself, Unite organisers are attempting to put pressure on Veolia through a broad leverage campaign with protests taking place at the company’s Paris HQ and at industry summits both in Britain and internationally. French trade unionists from the Confédération Générale du Travail have also travelled to Sheffield to take part in demonstrations in solidarity with the local workers.  

These striking workers have taken a principled stand and that has come at a cost, as eight long months on the picket line have inevitably taken their toll on personal and family finances. All the while, Veolia has continued to profit immensely from the outsourcing of public services in Sheffield, throughout Britain and internationally. The company could end the strike at any time but, presumably, their management are concerned that recognising Unite would lead to further demands from their underpaid staff in Sheffield and perhaps set a precedent that could lead to recognition campaigns elsewhere.

The workers remain resolute and determined but would benefit from the support of the wider labour movement. Please circulate this motion, sign the petition, and do what you can to support these workers in their struggle.