There have been delays to bin trucks leaving one of Birmingham City Council’s depots on Friday – after the latest protest in what has been the city’s never ending story in 2025
Bin collection workers in Birmingham(Image: BCC)
Birmingham taxpayers have been warned that bin collections may be delayed or missed today, Friday, December 19, because of a depot protest.
The city council’s Smithfield site in Pershore Street was targeted. The authority said it led to delays in lorries leaving the depot and may lead to problems with rubbish collections.
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It posted on its X: “Protests at Smithfield depot this morning may cause delays to waste collections Please leave your bins out as normal and we will collect them as soon as we can.”
It is the third Friday in a row where there were protests outside depots.
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The council mistakenly posted that Unite union members had been protesting on Friday, December 5. That protest was in fact Socialist Party members causing disruption to bin lorries at the Atlas depot in Tyseley.
At the time Socialist Party member, Nick Hart, told BirminghamLive: “I might or might not have been stood outside the depot between the hours of 6am and 10am. “It’s a group of independent activiists who support the bin workers’ strike.” The regional organiser and member of the party’s branch in Birmingham added: “It wasn’t organised by the bin workers or the union. It was a group of us that wanted to put pressure on the council.”
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A spokeswoman for Birmingham City Council then said: “We apologise for incorrectly identifying Unite in a social media post as being involved in Friday December 5 protest at Atlas depot, as part of our messaging to residents to advise their waste collections would be affected.
“Our waste vehicles were able to leave the depot later that day, in order to carry out waste collections as planned.”
Then last Friday there were protests outside depots at Perry Barr and Smithfield.
The council then said: “Protests at Perry Barr and Smithfield depots have caused delays to our fleet this morning. Please leave your bins out as normal and we will collect them as soon as we can.”
The city has been named among the country’s worst-ranked local authorities for bin complaints
It was unclear who was behind today’s protests. But it was the latest disruption in a bitter near year-long dispute between Birmingham bin workers and the council over proposed changes to their pay and conditions.
Some council bin staff council have been taking action on what Unite called ‘fire and rehire pay cuts of up to £8,000’ since January. They have been on an all-out strike since March 11.
Job & Talent agency staff joined the action over alleged ‘bullying, harassment and the threat of blacklisting’ following a vote a little over a month ago.
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A spokeswoman for Birmingham City Council has previously said: “While we are disappointed the dispute has not been resolved as Unite has rejected all our offers, we are continuing to make regular waste collections and our contingency plan is working.
“We have been collecting an average of approximately 1,330 tonnes of kerbside waste every day, more than we did prior to industrial action, and over the last six months we have collected over 100,000 tonnes of kerbside waste.
“There has been a 22 per cent increase in tonnage of waste collected per employee and a 52 per cent improvement regarding missed collections.
“A small number of agency staff are in a separate dispute with Job & Talent. The city council has contingency plans and will continue to look to maintain residents with a minimum of one collection a week.
“Meanwhile we continue to move forward with the service improvements that are long overdue and that our residents need.”