I PAID my last visit to the Coventry HGV refuse drivers’ picket line on Friday July 29. 

Why? Because they have won. 

The bin drivers’ dispute which began in January has now ended with a pay rise for the drivers worth up to 12.9 per cent — an estimated £3,600 per year in their pay packets.

The drivers have beaten a Labour council that was determined to break their strike and give their union a bloody nose. 

So determined was the council to defeat the refuse drivers, it was prepared to squander £5 million on agency scabs, makeshift recycling drop-off points and the hire of refuse vehicles. 

Do as they might, it is this Labour council that is the one left to bandage its self-inflicted wounds and to try to justify to Coventry council taxpayers why it embarked on an exercise of wasting its scarce resources. 

The council is utterly humiliated. The refuse workers have won a pay rise that, when a Christmas bonus is factored in, amounts to 16 per cent. 

There will be no change in their conditions and the refuse service will return to the one delivered before this seven-month strike started.

This is a victory, not just over pay and conditions. It is a victory for union members who stood firm against an employer who thought they could drive the workers back to work. 

A victory over a council which, some suggest, was receiving direction and encouragement from the highest levels of the Labour Party in its battle to defeat the strikers and their union. A victory that will show to others that, however belligerent the bosses, solidarity and resilience will win every time. 

Leaders of the dispute told me that they were convinced there was evidence that the hand of Sir Keir Starmer was at work during the dispute. 

They said he was encouraging local council leaders to fight the strikers and demonstrate Labour was not soft on unions.

Haydn Jones, the refuse workers’ convener, said: “We’ve stood together from the cold bleak days of January through to today,” adding: “The employers have lied about us, misrepresented us and used all kinds of underhand tactics, but they have had to realise that we were not going to give in, nor would we go back until our just demands had been met in full.”

Others told me the long seven-month strike has passed through the seasons: “We got up to go on the picket line when it was dark at 4.30 in the morning, to when it was daylight at that time and now it’s starting to get dark again.”

Pete Randle, a senior representative who was suspended by the council, has been told by council managers through a “mouthful of humble pie” that he was never suspended, only under investigation.

They dropped their “investigations” last week and Randle will return to work with all the other strikers.

Randle and Jones have shown stand-out leadership from day one of this dispute. They have never wavered. 

Randle puts the success of the dispute down to resilience. He said: “The union have backed us all the way, but the members have shown incredible resilience and that led to it dawning on the council that we were not going back until we got what we had gone on strike for.” 

This victory is also one for others employed by Coventry City Council. Randle said: “If they had beaten us, then everyone working for the council would be fair game for attacks by the bosses.”

This last day of picketing was a mix of emotions. There wasn’t the euphoria I had expected — they were proud of their success, but the strike had built a remarkable sense of unbreakable solidarity among the strikers and this had led to forming new friendships.  

The union Unite is held in the highest esteem by the strikers — it has been courageous, honest and dedicated to achieving victory. 

There was also much praise from the drivers for the support they had received from the general public and especially from the local trades council and key members. 

A recent editorial in the Morning Star said: “When workers are organised at the point of production and distribution, with determination and a clear sense of direction and strategy they can win.” 

Nowhere is that proven more than the victory achieved by the Coventry refuse HGV drivers. 

Phil Street is secretary of Coventry Trade Union Council.