Today’s negotiations to end bin strike have apparently collapsed(Image: (Image: PA))

Talks between Birmingham City Council and Unite to end the city’s devastating bin strike have ended today, apparently in acrimony.

Today’s negotiations shut down with the union claiming the council was ‘failing to come clean’ about the true fate of its bin workers, a claim the council denied.

The union claims it has demanded a written guarantee that bin workers would not face financial losses as a result of current and possible future reviews of job roles – but none was forthcoming.

They say that is at odds with public statements by council leader John Cotton, who has said none of the workers currently in disputed Waste Recycling and Collection Officer roles needed to ‘lose out’, a position he has maintained through the negotiations and reiterated in media interviews today.

Today’s disappointing outcome means it will be after Easter before there is any hope of an end to the bitter dispute that is pitting around 400 bin workers against the biggest council in Europe, backed up by the Labour Government.

READ MORE: Every word from Birmingham council leader as he faces questions amid bin strike anger

In a statement, Unite said the talks that were being held today were halted because negotiators from the council refused to put in writing that none of its bin workers would lose pay ‘in the long term’.

Most of the 170 affected workers have accepted alternative work offers or taken voluntary redundancy. The rest have been served with compulsory redundancy notices.

Overflowing bins in the Selly Oak area of Birmingham in March 2025Overflowing bins in the Selly Oak area of Birmingham in March 2025(Image: PA)

But Unite say that when the council’s representatives were asked to ‘put in writing’ a guarantee of no financial losses, they did not do so.

“We believe they are telling untruths to the public to infer the offer given is better than it really is,” said a Unite spokesperson.

“They need to come clean. Mr Cotton said only today that ‘nobody needs to lose income’. So today Unite asked council negotiators to put in writing what they have said in public so members could consider it an official offer.”

READ MORE: Talks resume to end Birmingham bin strike as council chief warns axed role ‘cannot be saved’

The four demands set out by Unite were:

  • Confirmation that no bin worker at risk of redundancy would lose pay
  • Confirmation that affected workers who were moved ‘sideways’ into equivalent roles in the street cleaning services would have their pay protected long term
  • Confirmation that affected workers who did not wish to move ‘sideways’ would receive a lump sum of £16,000 to cover the likely impact of a downgrade
  • Confirmation that bin truck drivers would also not face pay cuts or downgrades following a job re-evaluation exercise that is currently under way.

Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said she stood ready to meet Cotton and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner over Easter.

But she said the council leader should “rethink his position” if his comments “prove to be untrue”.

She said: “We appear to be in a parallel universe. Yet again, John Cotton is saying one thing in public, while his local officers are saying another in the negotiating room and in writing.”