MEMBERS of the Unite union voted by 97 per cent on a 75 per cent turn out in favour of continuing the industrial action in Birmingham, which began intermittently in January before becoming an all-out stoppage in March.
At the centre of the dispute is a pay row between the cash-strapped city council and workers belonging to Unite which says some staff employed by the council stand to lose £8,000 per year under a planned restructuring of the refuse service.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said a proposal by Birmingham City Council was not in line with an offer discussed in May in talks under a conciliation service.
She accused the Labour "government commissioners and the leaders of the council" of watering it down.
"It beggars belief that a Labour government and Labour council is treating these workers so disgracefully," she said. "Unite will not allow these workers to be financially ruined –- the strikes will continue for as long as it takes."
Although non-unionised workers have been collecting bins during the strike the industrial action continues to cause disruption to rubbish removal resulting in concerns about rats and public health.
The dispute in the city of over a million people, known for its industrial past and multicultural character, is an illustration of the budgetary pressures facing many other local authorities across the country.
A council spokesperson denied there had been any watering down of the deal.
"This is a service that needs to be transformed to one that citizens of Birmingham deserve and the council remains committed to resolving this dispute, the spokesperson said.
"We have made a fair and reasonable offer that we have asked Unite to put to their members and we are awaiting their response.”
Council defends ‘ambitious’ vision for city, reports LDRS
In another development, Birmingham council has defended an “ambitious” plan for the city’s future despite the vision being slammed as “devoid of reality”.
The local authority’s corporate plan sets out the priorities for Birmingham over the next three years and how it intends to overcome the issues which have recently plagued the council.
In a bid to make the city fairer, greener and healthier, the Labour-run council’s plan explores how it can tackle critical challenges such as housing need, health inequalities, unemployment and child poverty.
Bags of rubbish and bins overflow on the pavement in the Sparkbrook area on June 02, 2025 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
But the council’s vision came under fire during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday (3) with Conservative group leader Robert Alden pointing to its aspiration of improving street cleaning and waste services.
He went on to say the city’s bins service was currently not operating properly as the ongoing bins strike continues to take its toll.
“This plan is devoid of the reality of the situation the council finds itself in,” he argued. “That’s a fundamental problem as to why it will fail.
“Residents expect the city to balance the books and to clean the streets – this corporate plan doesn’t do it.
Councillor Alden added: “A lot of officer time and resources have been spent producing yet more colourful, lovely dossiers to hand out and claim that the future will be different.”
Acknowledging the financial turmoil which has plagued the authority, council leader John Cotton said the Labour administration had made significant progress in “fixing the foundations”.
He continued: “Fixing those foundations is essential if we’re going to deliver on ambitions for this city – and we should make no apology for being ambitious for Birmingham and its people.
“This is exactly what this corporate plan is about – it’s about looking forward to the future.”
Cotton went on to say the plan sets out the council’s “high level ambitions” and “major targets” for the city over the next few years.
“It’s also underpinned by a lot of detailed policy and strategy that’s come before this cabinet previously,” he said.
“It’s important not to just look at one document – we need to look at this being the guiding document that governs all the other work that this council is undertaking.”
Deputy leader Coun Sharon Thompson added: “We have to be ambitious for the residents of Birmingham – that is we are committed to doing whilst also fixing some of the issues which opposition [councillors] have highlighted.
“The world is changing, innovation is coming upon us and we cannot let Birmingham be left behind.”
She added that having a Labour government working with the council would “make a difference” when it came to tackling some of the city’s most pressing issues compared to the previous 13 years.
Birmingham City Council also has plans to transform its waste collection service in a bid to boost the efficiency and reliability of bin collections.
But the bins strike dispute between itself and Unite the union remains unresolved, with striking workers raising concerns about pay while the council’s leadership has repeatedly insisted that a “fair and reasonable” offer has been made.
The all-out citywide strike has been running since March and has attracted unwanted headlines from across the world, with tales of ‘cat-sized rats’ and rubbish mountains making headlines.
(AFP and Local Democracy Reporting Service)
