Leeds council and union officials have held talks for the first time in an attempt to stop a strike by the city’s bin-men, which has entered its ninth week.
The refuse collectors and street cleaning staff started their industrial action on 7 September in a dispute about pay.
Unison and the GMB union rejected a deal tabled by the council last month which offered refuse collectors an annual pay cut of £231 rather than the originally intended £4,491 cut, and instead called for direct talks with Leeds councillors, the BBC reported.
The GMB union has announced that the city’s refuse collectors will strike for a week from 9 November, in response to council plans to cut the pay of 800 workers by up to £8,000 a year.
In total 96% of the unionised refuse collectors voted in favour of taking industrial action.
A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said: “We have had productive talks with the unions up to this point about how to fulfil this duty and we are disappointed the GMB has taken its members out on strike while the council is prepared to continue negotiations.”
