Birmingham City Council<\/a> is taking money off workers to pay off their debt to the Government. Workers are again paying the price for bad decision after bad decision.”<\/p>\nUnite said that West Midlands Labour Mayor Richard Parker had “let the cat out of the bag” after he said \u201cthe strikes are a consequence of being asked to do more with less.”<\/p>\n
Ms Graham added: \u201cUnite will not stand by and allow the council and this Labour government to inflict these savage pay cuts on workers. It is completely unjustified and a clear escalation of the dispute. It will not be accepted.<\/p>\n
“No worker should be expected to lose these eye-watering amounts of money from their pay packet.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0_striking.jpg\")
A box carrying the petition was left outside Birmingham Council House after the authority closed the door on striking binmen(Image: BirminghamLive\/Harry Leach)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government has protected a Labour council that has been treating workers in this outrageous way. It is no wonder Labour is increasingly not seen as the party of workers. They should hang their heads in shame.’<\/p>\n
Under the council\u2019s plans the pay rate of drivers will reduce from \u00a340,000 to \u00a332,000, a pay cut of \u00a38,000, Unite said.<\/p>\n
Last week, Unite said it believed a deal to end the long running bin strike could be \u201cwithin touching distance\u201d provided the council did not cut the pay of drivers.<\/p>\n
The union called on council leader John Cotton – himself a Unite member – to attend ACAS talks from Thursday, May 1. Unite said “he can hide no longer” and the Labour government had a clear role in the dispute.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1745934311_443_3_Rat-poison-prices-hiked-during-bin-strikes-as-Squeaky-Blinders-run-riot.jpg\")
Black sacks and other rubbish piles up in Balsall Heath during the bin strike.(Image: Anita Maric\/SWNS)<\/p>\n
Ms Graham added: \u201cJohn Cotton has said ‘no worker needs to lose pay’. Therefore, he needs to be at Acas talks this week and turn this comment into reality or step down for lying to the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso the government who owns the council debt and are profiteering from it, cannot simply sit on its hands. If this was any other employer apart from a Labour council, they would be calling them out for slashing workers\u2019 pay.<\/p>\n
Unite national lead officer Onay Kasab said: \u201cToday\u2019s announcement makes it clear the council have been playing games.<\/p>\n
“It has had no intention of resolving this dispute and protecting workers, this is all about cutting workers\u2019 pay and plunging them into financial misery.\u201d<\/p>\n
A council spokesperson said earlier today: \u201cThis fair and transparent job evaluation process, jointly agreed with trade unions, is necessary to ensure the council complies with equal pay laws. Today was the final workshop on the driver team leader\u2019s role involving all Trade Unions.”<\/p>\n
They said the decision to grade drivers as ‘Grade 3’ was ‘indicative’ only and subject to further collective consultation.<\/p>\n
The council said: “It is part of an ongoing process of quality assurance and moderation, and this an indicative grade which is subject to further collective consultation.<\/p>\n
“We remain committed to delivering a fair and sustainable deal for drivers and collectors and we will continue those discussions with Unite at scheduled talks later this week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Around 200 drivers were told their jobs are being downgraded as part of an equal pay-related review by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,7831,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-60342","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-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114421558367733701","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60342","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=60342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Unite](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1_JS362599267.jpg\")
Unite the Union members outside the Atlas Depot in Redfern Road, Tyseley, pictured with police officers in attendance, at the start of the all-out strike <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1_JS365906491.jpg\")
A pile of bin bags in the Selly Park area of Birmingham(Image: Alexander Brock\/BirminghamLive)<\/p>\n