Birmingham City Council has declared a major incident to help address the impact of ongoing strikes by bin workers, which have led to around 17,000 tonnes of waste remaining uncollected.
The council said picket lines of striking Unite members have left waste collection vehicle unable to leave depots to collect waste from residents. It said often, it could only get one vehicle out per hour.
Birmingham has contingency plans to collect from all properties across the city once per week, but actions on the picket line have prevented this, leading to rising concerns of risks to public health and damage to the environment.
Declaring a major incident allows the council to increase the availability of street cleansing and fly-tip removal with an additional 35 vehicles and crews around the city.
Birmingham City Council
Councillor John Cotton, leader of Birmingham City Council, said: “It’s regrettable that we have had to take this step, but we cannot tolerate a situation that is causing harm and distress to communities across Birmingham.
“I respect the right to strike and protest, however, actions on the picket line must be lawful and sadly the behaviour of some now means we are seeing a significant impact on residents and the city’s environment.
“Unless we declare a major incident and deploy the waste service’s contingency plan, then we would be unable to clear the backlog of waste on the streets or improve the frequency of collections.”
The council usually deploys around 200 vehicles over eight-hour shifts. Its contingency allows 90 vehicles per day but, because of pickets blocking depots, they are deployed much later and therefore for shorter working periods.
“Normally we would make well over 500,000 collections per week. Our strike contingency would mean 360,000, but due to the blockade of depots we are doing far below this,” it said in a statement.
‘Fair and reasonable’
Cotton added: “I want to thank residents for their continued patience under difficult circumstances and the community groups who have been working hard within their communities to help with the clear-up.
“I would reiterate that we have made a fair and reasonable offer to our workers which means none of them have to lose any money and I would urge Unite to reconsider their position.”
Unite said Birmingham council is prepared to “throw much more cash down the drain” with its major incident than it would cost to resolve the dispute, saying the council was attempting to crush any opposition to attacks on jobs, pay and conditions that are set to extend to other workers across the council.
The council has been in dispute with Unite over the decision to remove waste recycling and collection officer (WRCO) roles. Unite says pay and conditions for bin workers, who mostly earn little more than the national minimum wage, had already been cut before the current dispute, including £1,000 in shift pay.
It says around 150 workers are directly affected with pay cuts of up to £8,000 by the removal of the WRCO role, which also “ends fair pay progression for hundreds of others”.
Bin men and women began intermittent strikes in January over the plans to downgrade some staff and reduce their pay, but on 11 March, around 400 workers began an indefinite walkout after Unite accused Birmingham council of using agency staff to collect waste.
The council said: “We strongly refute any suggestion that agency workers have been carrying out work normally undertaken by striking workers. We continue to deploy the same number of agency workers on days of action as we would on any normal working days.”
‘Demotions and pay cuts’
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Birmingham council could easily resolve this dispute, but instead it seems hellbent on imposing its plan of demotions and pay cuts at all costs. If that involves spending far more than it would cost to resolve the strike fairly, they don’t seem to care.
“We can only conclude that this massive pay cut for hundreds of refuse workers is only the start and this is really about stamping out any future opposition to its plans to unleash austerity 2.0 on Birmingham.
“I urge Birmingham council to rethink this disastrous strategy and to find a way forward that doesn’t involve workers and communities having to pay for politicians’ mistakes. Unite will never accept attacks on our members and we will continue to defend Birmingham’s refuse workforce to the hilt.”
Birmingham City Council’s finances have been overseen by government commissioners since it issued a notice in 2023 under section 114 of the Local Government Act – effectively declaring itself bankrupt in the wake of a £760 million liability for equal pay claims.
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