A general image of a bin lorry (Image: Birmingham City Council )
More Birmingham City Council bin truck drivers have joined the strike still blighting the city, leaving the council scrambling to get wagons out to collect rubbish.
Reports are emerging of delayed collections and a return of rubbish hotspots around Birmingham after angry drivers were told last week they were in line for potential pay and grading cuts as part of a council-wide review.
As a result drivers from three depots walked out to join their colleagues on the frontline.
READ MORE: ‘We could stay on strike all summer’ – defiant bin workers face down council
The council said today it had a ‘contingency plan’ and hoped to have collections back on track by the end of this week.
The defiant workers said last week they were desperate to get back to work but could stay on strike ‘all summer’ if a deal was not struck that protected their pay.
The warning of a summer of discontent was repeated by Unite union leader Sharon Graham.
Talks between the city council and the union Unite are ongoing, a spokesperson said today. But both sides said they wanted to avoid giving a running commentary about the talks, saying they were keen to leave negotiators to try to work up a solution to the long-running dispute.
One worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the bin depots were currently struggling to get trucks out because of a shortage of crews, especially drivers.
The three bin depots are located in Tyseley, Perry Barr and Kings Norton – map shows the areas they each collect rubbish from(Image: BCC)
In one depot, Perry Barr, we understand as many as 11 more drivers have joined the picket line in the last week, depleting the number of full-time employed drivers to ‘just three’. Agency drivers are filling some of the gaps.
As a result collections are behind schedule by a day or two in most places, said staff involved. It is possible more drivers will also down tools if talks about equal pay don’t conclude satisfactorily soon.
The industrial dispute dates back to the start of the year, when the council deleted the role of Waste Recycling and Collections Officer (WRCO) on the bin crews, affecting 170 staff. Occasional strike days turned into an all-out strike on March 11.
Then last week the crew’s drivers, currently Grade 4, separately learned a pay review had indicated they were in line to be dropped to a Grade 3, with a pay cut of £6-8,000.
That triggered a new exodus of staff to join the strike.
The council has cleared thousands of tonnes of rubbish and removed piles of flytipped waste and was confident it would be able to get to every household at least once a week from this week onwards, ahead of the additional disruption from drivers.
Birmingham City Council said today in response to our inquiries: “A contingency plan has been developed and crews are continuing to work throughout the week with the aim of ensuring collections are back on track by the end of this week.”
It did not respond to our request for information about how many trucks had been able to get out of each of the three depots – Atlas in Tyseley, Lifford Lane in Kings Norton and Perry Barr – but said all available wagons had got out this morning without disruption.
Plans are under way to hold a Brum Strikes Mega Picket next week, with multiple unions from across the city, to ‘show solidarity with the striking binworkers’.
The planned ‘mass picket’ outside the bin depot in Lifford Lane, Kings Norton, on May 9 is due to start at 6am. The move is said to be backed by multiple unions including ADCU, Aslef, BFAWU, Birmingham Trades Union Council, Birmingham People’s Assembly, Birmingham UCU, CWU West Midlands, Equity, the Fire Brigades Union, the General Federation of Trade Unions, Peace and Justice project, PCS, Unite for a workers’ economy and We Demand Change.