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Rubbish is piling up on the streets of Birmingham as bin workers launched an all-out indefinite strike, with the council accusing the union of holding the city hostage.
Almost 400 workers in Birmingham, who have been have been striking intermittently since January in an escalating row over the scrapping of some roles, began the all-out strike from 6am on Tuesday. More than 1 million people are likely to be affected.
Across the city there have been reports of overflowing bins and bags of rubbish piled high in the streets, with rat infestations increasing as a result.
Craig Cooper, the strategic director of city operations at the council, told BBC Radio WM that the authority was “looking for this to stop as quickly as possible but the trade unions don’t seem to want to negotiate”.
“I feel that they are holding us and our residents hostage,” he said. “I understand the frustration of residents and we recognise we need to create a modern, sustainable and reliable service.” He added that the service had “not acted effectively for a very long time”.
Zoe Mayou, from the union Unite, said it wanted “to meet with Birmingham city council and have productive talks”.
“They know what we want. They are the ones holding the city to ransom – certainly not us,” she said.
Police were called in on Tuesday morning to allow agency bin workers drafted in by the council to leave the depot. Cooper said 90 crews, compared with the usual 200, went out on collection rounds.
Mayou said the number of police officers brought in was “overkill”. “We’re doing a legitimate picket line and the amount of police here is just unbelievable, I just don’t understand why there are so many here,” she said.
Residents have been urged to leave rubbish out as normal, although they have been warned it may take longer for it to be collected.
Unite said the industrial action had been stepped up, and could last into the summer because of the council’s use of temporary labour to replace striking crews.
“The disgraceful use of unlawful labour to try and break the strike has just resulted in industrial action escalating. The only way this dispute will end is by halting the brutal and unnecessary attacks on our members’ pay,” said the Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham.
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The action was triggered by the council’s decision to remove the role of waste recycling and collection officer, responsible for safety at the back of a refuse collection lorry, from its fleets.
The union claims this is a “safety-critical role” and will lead to affected workers losing £8,000 in their salary, as well as cutting off a “fair path for pay progression”.
The council disputes this. Cooper said the role was “not critical to health and safety” as all workers shared responsibility for this. He added that the role was not available nationally.
The council said 170 staff members were affected by the move, and about 130 of these had accepted roles in other parts of the council on the same pay grade, while others have opted to train for more advanced roles. It claimed 17 staff members could lose the maximum amount from their salary, and that this was £6,000, not £8,000.
Birmingham city council, which declared itself in effect bankrupt in 2023, is being overseen by government commissioners, with plans under way to cut hundreds of jobs and sell off assets to help balance the books.
