The Unite Union has threatened to withdraw funding from the Labour Party over a pay dispute with refuse collectors in Coventry.
The Unite General Secretary, Sharon Graham said she was prepared to escalate the dispute threatening financial support for the party was now “under review”.
Workers have been on strike since the end of January and will continue for two-months over better pay and conditions.
Has Labour changed under Starmer?
Responding to the Unite leader’s threat to cut funding, in a statement Labour said: “These sort of threats won’t work in Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.”
As the Labour Party’s largest donor, Unite has cut funding for several years declaring that Sir Keir’s inner team was “just not listening.”
Unite is the Labour Party’s single biggest donor, providing the party with millions in funding every year.
What is happening in Coventry:
Lasting months, the dispute has become increasingly bad tempered, with the union and Labour-run council each accusing the other of manipulating the truth.
The Unite General Secretary said the Labour-run council had “time and again totally misrepresented the union’s claims for its bin drivers” and it “should be ashamed of the spin it has tried to make” about its own workers’ pay rates”.
“These dreadful misrepresentations are deliberately designed to enrage the general public which directly risks the welfare of workers who are taking part in an entirely legal dispute, and this, a Labour council.”
In response, Coventry City Council strongly disputes the union’s numbers and highlights that it is one of the highest paying employers in the West Midlands.