Bins strike timeline amid major negotiations update

Birmingham City Council is ending talks to solve the bins strike crisis and staff are set to go.

The authority announced yesterday that it was shutting down negotiations with the Unite union. It said it was giving notice that disgruntled waste service staff were likely to have to go.

The long-running dispute was initially triggered by the loss of the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer role.

Striking workers raised concerns about pay while the council’s leadership repeatedly insisted a “fair and reasonable” offer had been made.

Labour council leader John Cotton said today the council had made every attempt to negotiate a deal but it had not been possible.

Here’s a look at how the bins strike unfolded in Birmingham.

January – bins strike begins

The industrial action began in January as a resolution was unable to be reached between the council and Unite.

Disruption was felt by residents across the city in the following weeks, with recycling collections soon suspended by the council.

The dispute escalated into an “indefinite” all-out strike from March 11 – a move which contributed to stinking rubbish piling high on street corners and growing fears over rodents.

March – Major incident declared

As the end of March approached, huge heaps of bin bags were blighting areas across the city.

On the last day of the month, the council declared a major incident as around 17,000 tonnes of waste remained uncollected.

“It’s regrettable we have had to take this step but we cannot tolerate a situation that is causing harm and distress to communities across Birmingham,” Coun Cotton said.

“Unless we declare a major incident and deploy the waste service’s contingency plan, we would be unable to clear the backlog of waste on the streets or improve the frequency of collections.”

The council made progress in clearing the  backlog in the following weeks but rubbish was still seen piling up in some streets.

April – government faces questions

Labour government ministers found themselves  dragged into the saga as it attracted negative attention from outside the city.

Sir Keir Starmer condemned the all-out strike as “completely unacceptable” during Prime Minister’s Questions.

And chief secretary to the treasury, Darren Jones, downplayed the idea the Army would clean the city’s streets, despite calls from local politicians.

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and local government minister Jim McMahon visited the city in April, with the latter insisting Birmingham “will always have a reputation of being a fantastic, thriving city” despite the disruption.

April also saw a man dressed in a giant rat costume make a surprise appearance at a council meeting. He remained in character and told a Local Democracy Reporter: “They [the council] have done this for the rats – it’s amazing.

“Selly Oak has a huge amount of rubbish especially from students and it means that all my relatives can feed in a way that means we can go around and rampage in the streets.”

Coun Majid Mahmood, cabinet member for environment, responded in good humour, saying: “Can I say I’m impressed by your costume but you are lucky that Brummie the cat is no longer in residence at the council house.”

He said he understood and sympathised with residents’ frustrations and that’s why a major incident was declared and why police were helping to ensure trucks were leaving depots “unhindered”.

May – the ‘megapicket’ and court injunction

The waste situation improved following the major incident declaration but a ‘megapicket’ held in May ended up causing a fresh wave of disruption.

A crowd of protesters from various unions gathered at Lifford Lane depot, one of the three main council depots in the city, to show support for the striking workers.

Those behind the demonstration, which featured a giant inflatable rat, proclaimed they had ‘shut down’ the depot, meaning no trucks left the site during the time spent at the ‘megapicket’ by a Local Democracy Reporter.

The council said it was aware of the planned protest and  it “revised operational deployment plans” as a result.

Later in May, the council was granted an interim injunction by the High Court to ensure the “picketing and protesting behaviour” outside its three depots was in “accordance with legal provisions”.

The injunction set out expected behaviour from pickets and aimed to prevent the obstruction of vehicles leaving the depots, the authority said.

“The council must now work to resume weekly collections and reduce the recent build up of waste experienced in the city,” it added.

Around a week later, the council confirmed  it had been decided the injunction would continue on an indefinite basis.

“This should ensure vehicles are freely able to leave their depots,” it said.

Unite said in response that it was “preparing evidence to be able to seek to persuade the court that the interim injunction should not have been granted”.

June – angry scenes in council house

A Birmingham City Council meeting descended into turmoil in June as Coun Cotton faced angry questions from the public gallery.

“Would you take an £8,000 pay cut Cotton?” a man furiously shouted as the leader tried to answer a question about the strike from a resident.

The scenes, which were caught on camera, continued as the man then yelled: “Would you? Come on?

“I’m asking you directly John – would you take a £8,000 pay cut?

“That’s what you’re expecting hardworking bin workers to take.”

As he was guided from the public gallery, he shouted “p*** off you “d*******” before being escorted through the doors.

The council said previously that all WRCO workers had been offered alternative employment at the same pay, driver training or voluntary redundancy.

July – ‘we must press ahead’

Birmingham Council said today it would notify staff and unions of its intention to enter consultation with affected workers that could lead to redundancies – while keeping the door open to those wanting to accept offers to retrain or be redeployed.

Coun Cotton said: “We have negotiated in good faith but unfortunately Unite has rejected all offers so we must now press ahead to both address our equal pay risk and make much needed improvements to the waste service.

“This is a service that has not been good enough for a long time and we must improve it.

“Unite’s demands would leave us with another equal pay bill of hundreds of millions of pounds, which is totally unacceptable, and would jeopardise the considerable progress we have made in our financial recovery.”