{"id":138718,"date":"2025-05-28T13:21:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T13:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/138718\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T13:21:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T13:21:18","slug":"birmingham-bin-strike-latest-as-city-council-makes-if-you-can-plea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/138718\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham bin strike latest as city council makes ‘if you can’ plea"},"content":{"rendered":"

The continuous strike – over pay and the removal of roles – started on March 11<\/p>\n

11:58, 28 May 2025Updated 12:19, 28 May 2025<\/p>\n

\"AA West Midlands Police officer in Tyseley, amid the ongoing bin strikes(Image: Jacob King\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

There has been no breakthrough in talks between Birmingham City Council and Unite the union representing striking Birmingham<\/a> bin workers this week, BirminghamLive understands.<\/p>\n

Unite had expected to receive a potential pay offer, via the independent conciliation service ACAS, yesterday, Tuesday, May 27, so they could ballot members.<\/p>\n

However, no new offer arrived and no update is now expected until Friday, May 30, at the earliest.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Birmingham bin strike costs taxpayer nearly \u00a31m to fund policing at picket lines<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The continuous strike – over pay and conditions – started on March 11.<\/p>\n

The council later declared a major incident after 17,000-tonnes of rubbish were left uncollected on the city’s streets. Now a current clear up is on to remove more than 12,000-tonnes of waste.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice officers on hand as members of Unite go on the picket line at Birmingham City Council’s Atlas Depot in Tyseley(Image: Matthew Cooper\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

BirminghamLive revealed today that is has cost the taxpayer almost \u00a31m to fund policing numbers at picket lines. Almost 1,800 West Midlands Police<\/a> officers have been deployed to three city waste depots over 11-weeks.<\/p>\n

The council said that all of its available waste wagons were deployed from its depots at Atlas, in Tyseley<\/a>, Lifford Lane, in Kings Norton<\/a>, and Perry Barr<\/a> today, Wednesday, May 28.<\/p>\n

It also reminded residents that recycling collections are still suspended. It said “please don\u2019t” burn your recycling or household waste and instead take it to a household recycling centre “if you can.”<\/p>\n

In a waste update, the council posted on X: “Wednesday 28 May: All of our available waste wagons have been deployed from our three depots citywide this morning.<\/p>\n

“Please put your household waste bin (grey lid) out on your scheduled day. If not collected, please leave bins out and crews will attend asap.”<\/p>\n

It later said: “Recycling collections are still suspended. Please don\u2019t burn your recycling, or household waste.<\/p>\n

“If you can, take your recycling to a Household Recycling Centre. Or store it safely at home For advice, follow the link in the comments.”<\/p>\n

Black sacks and other rubbish piles up in Balsall Heath during the bin strike.(Image: Anita Maric\/SWNS)<\/p>\n

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham told BirminghamLive: \u201cThe actions of Birmingham City Council<\/a> and the government commissioners have been a costly shambles.<\/p>\n

“First of all, they have tried to make bin workers\u2019 pay for their bad decisions by attempting to make pay cuts of up to \u00a38,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we hear that they have not only thrown money away on agency labour, clean-up costs and expensive legal challenges but their incompetence has also led to \u00a3850,000 wasted on policing picket lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, the bin workers are still waiting for the \u2018fair and reasonable offer\u2019 that they have been urged to accept by Angela Rayner and council leader, John Cotton. It is little wonder that Birmingham residents and the workers are now questioning whose side Labour is on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city council was granted an interim injunction to ensure that the picketing and protesting behaviour outside of the council\u2019s three depots is in accordance with legal provisions from Friday, May 23.<\/p>\n

This has seen picketers standing in front of waste wagons and use go-slow tactics to disrupt vehicles leaving depots due to depart to make collections. The injunction is currently in place until Thursday, May 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The continuous strike – over pay and the removal of roles – started on March 11 11:58, 28…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,7831,748,393,4884,15267,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-138718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-bin-strike","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-perry-barr","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114585671133254406","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}