{"id":30149,"date":"2025-04-18T12:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T12:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/30149\/"},"modified":"2025-04-18T12:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T12:01:10","slug":"birmingham-council-leader-warns-we-wont-entertain-it-as-he-doubles-down-on-bin-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/30149\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham council leader warns ‘we won’t entertain it’ as he doubles down on bin strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birmingham City Council and Unite the union failed to reach a resolution over the bins strike dispute this week despite talks taking place\"BirminghamBirmingham City Council leader John Cotton during a budget meeting(Image: Nick Wilkinson\/Birmingham Live)<\/p>\n

Birmingham City Council\u2019s leader has doubled down on his position in the bins strike dispute and urged the Unite union to \u201caccept reality\u201d.<\/p>\n

The strike, which left thousands of tonnes of rubbish blighting the city\u2019s streets<\/a>, was triggered by a disagreement between the council and union over plans to scrap the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO).<\/p>\n

Unite argues that this move will force \u201cdedicated workers onto pay levels barely above the minimum wage\u201d.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>\u2018Pains me personally\u2019- Birmingham Council leader on city\u2019s image as bin strike makes global headlines<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But the council\u2019s political leadership has previously insisted a \u201cfair and reasonable offer\u201d has been made and “not a single worker needs to lose a penny”.<\/p>\n

Council leader John Cotton also recently argued that restoring the role would be a \u2018red line that cannot be crossed’<\/a> and could potentially lead to further equal pay challenges.<\/p>\n

After the two parties failed to reach a resolution this week despite talks, Coun Cotton released a new statement today urging Unite to accept \u201cthat the WRCO role cannot be brought back\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur door remains open for further talks,\u201d he said on Thursday, April 17. \u201cHowever, to make progress Unite must accept reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not be able to make progress until Unite accepts that the WRCO role cannot be brought back and that the council cannot and will not entertain anything that would re-open an equal pay liability.<\/p>\n

\"WasteWaste piles high in Balsall Heath, Birmingham on April 1 – the day after the city council declared a major incident(Image: Alexander Brock)<\/p>\n

\u201cThat wouldn\u2019t be fair for residents or workers and is a red line for Birmingham City Council<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cWe are open to good faith negotiations on the basis of the fair and reasonable offer on the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the meantime, we are making good progress in clearing up the backlog of waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the recent clean-up of the city, Coun Cotton told the Local Democracy Reporting Service<\/a> this week: \u201c[Declaring a major incident] enables us to take the necessary, robust steps to clear that waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve made real progress – 20,000 tonnes of waste now off the streets.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Birmingham Council leader quizzed over major bin changes and strike clean-up cost<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting back to a position where we\u2019ll be able to ensure people get their bins emptied on the day they normally expect them to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

A number of measures have been taken by the council as the bins strike continues to rumble on, including the extension of opening hours at the city\u2019s tips.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the council\u2019s pest control charge for rats, previously dubbed a \u2018rat tax\u2019 by critics, has recently been made temporarily free.<\/p>\n

The service was free in previous years but controversially rose to \u00a324 and then \u00a326.40 during the past year and a half.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birmingham City Council and Unite the union failed to reach a resolution over the bins strike dispute this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,7831,984,748,393,728,4884,528,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-30149","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-birmingham-city-council","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-environment","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-labour-party","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114358863987037149","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30149","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=30149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}