The Birmingham bins strike has attracted unwanted headlines from across the world
A huge pile of rubbish in Balsall Heath on April 1/a man in a rat costume before a full council meeting gets underway at Birmingham City Council House(Image: Alexander Brock)
This week marked a bleak milestone for Birmingham – three months since the all-out bins strike began back in March.
It’s been a turbulent period for the city, with pictures of rubbish mountains on street corners and tales of cat-sized rats drawing negative attention from across the world.
The disruption looks set to rumble on too, with Unite warning just earlier this month that the strike could last until December.
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As it stands, the union’s dispute with the Labour-run city council, over plans to scrap a Waste Recycling and Collection Officer, remains unresolved.
Striking workers have raised concerns about pay while the council’s leadership has repeatedly insisted that a “fair and reasonable” offer has been made.
It remains to be seen what happens next in Birmingham ’s bins strike saga but here’s a look at some of the most pivotal moments from the last three months.
1) Major incident declared
Waste piles high in Balsall Heath, Birmingham on April 1 – the day after the city council declared a major incident(Image: Alexander Brock)
As enormous bin bag piles and frustration grew across Birmingham during the all-out strike, the city council took action and declared a major incident on March 31.
At the time, around 17,000 tonnes of waste remained uncollected – a bleak situation which had led to growing fears over rats and rising concerns of public health risks.
Council leader John Cotton said at the time: “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.
“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 would make progress in clearing the huge backlog of waste in the following weeks but some residents were still being forced to endure living just metres away from heaps of rubbish.
2) Government ministers grilled on bins strike
Darren Jones MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, at HS2 Curzon Street Station on Thursday, April 3.(Image: Alexander Brock)
High-profile Labour politicians on a national level soon found themselves being quizzed about the Brum bins strike as the situation attracted more and more unwanted headlines.
During Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir Starmer condemned the all-out strike as “completely unacceptable” and added that he supported the council in declaring a major incident.
Meanwhile during a visit to Birmingham in early April, the chief secretary to the treasury Darren Jones downplayed the idea that the Army would clean the city’s streets despite calls to consider the option by local politicians.
“The situation with bin collections here is clearly unacceptable,” he said. “People pay their council tax and one of the things they expect to happen is that their bins get collected routinely.
“As the Prime Minister said in the [House of Commons] yesterday, we’re happy to do whatever we can to get a grip of this and to be able to move on.”
On calls for the Army to be mobilised, he added: “Look, the government is in conversations with the council – I’m not sure we’re going to need tanks on the ground to get the bins collected.
“I’d be surprised if that was the case but clearly we’ll do whatever we can to make sure we can help the council get a grip of the situation.”
Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and local government minister Jim McMahon also visited the city in April, with the latter insisting that Birmingham “will always have a reputation of being a fantastic, thriving city” despite the strike turmoil.
3) ‘Giant rat’
A man in a rat costume before a full council meeting gets underway at Birmingham City Council House.(Image: Alexander Brock)
A meeting of the city council took a slightly surreal turn in April when a mystery man in a rat costume was spotted among the faces in the public gallery.
Speaking to a reporter, the ‘rat’ remained in character and told them: “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 went on to say that he understood and sympathised with residents’ frustrations and that’s why a major incident was declared and that police were helping to ensure that trucks were leaving depots “unhindered”.
4)
Protesters and a giant inflatable rat at the Birmingham bins strike ‘megapicket’ at Lifford Lane depot on Friday, May 9(Image: Alexander Brock)
The waste situation improved following the major incident declaration but a ‘megapicket’ in May ended up causing fresh disruption for residents in south Birmingham.
A crowd of protesters from various unions gathered at Lifford Lane depot, one of the three main council depots in the city, on a Friday morning to show support for the striking bin workers.
Those behind the demonstration, which featured a giant inflatable rat, soon proclaimed they had ‘shut down’ the depot, meaning no trucks left the site during the time spent at the ‘megapicket’ by a reporter.
Birmingham City Council said that morning that it was aware of the planned protest and that it “revised operational deployment plans” as a result.
Members of various unions attended the protest in a show of solidarity, with Adam Taylor from the Fire Brigades Union saying: “We know what cuts to the service feel like.
“An attack on one worker is an attack on all.”
5) Court injunction
A heap of waste in Kitchener Road, Selly Park on Friday, May 23.(Image: Alexander Brock)
In May, Brummies were again having to endure heaps of rubbish and missed bin collections as picket line protests at waste depots took their toll once more.
The latest disruption came after West Midlands Police reportedly reduced the number of officers at the depots.
“Following a High Court ruling last week on the use of s14 powers, we have reassessed the legal position and the powers available to us,” the force said at the time. “The section 14 legislation is no longer in place as the issue does not currently meet the threshold.
“We will continue to assess the situation and ensure our presence at the sites is in line with our core policing responsibilities.”
But on May 23, the council was granted an interim injunction by the High Court to ensure that the “picketing and protesting behaviour” outside of its three depots is in “accordance with legal provisions”.
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The injunction set out expected behaviour from those picketing and aims to prevent the obstruction of vehicles leaving the depots, the local 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 that it had been decided that the injunction would continue on an indefinite basis.
“This should ensure that 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”.
“When the union’s evidence is complete, the union will consult our lawyers to take necessary steps to ensure that this matter is referred back to the court for a thorough review at a hearing on a later date,” it continued.
But it also said it had agreed to abide by the law on picketing and would continue to conduct a lawful, peaceful protest.