Birmingham bins strike – Tories say city reputation ‘being dragged into gutter’<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\u201cTogether we\u2019ve put them through six months of pain, distress, rats and fly-tipping and it\u2019s completely unnecessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should have stayed around the table and I can\u2019t believe the council pulled out of negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking at the finance meeting, Birmingham Council managing director Joanne Roney said negotiations had been \u201ccordial, polite and well managed on both sides\u201d.<\/p>\n
But she continued: \u201cWhat is clear for Birmingham City Council is in settling this dispute, it cannot worsen the equal pay implications for the council.\u201d<\/p>\n
She went on to say that there were also \u2018best-value\u2019 considerations that will be looked at by government-appointed commissioners, sent in to oversee the council\u2019s financial recovery.<\/p>\n
![\"Birmingham](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_Roney.png\")
Birmingham Council managing director Joanne Roney speaks about the bins strike dispute at a finance scrutiny meeting on January 6(Image: Council Webcast)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is incredibly difficult to find a way through these various hurdles,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody is blaming the workers for this situation \u2013 this is a failure of Birmingham City Council for many years to not address its equal pay issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said two offers had been made to try and settle the dispute before being rejected by Unite, adding \u2018doors remain open\u2019 if the union wanted to make a proposal back.<\/p>\n
Asked about Joanne Roney\u2019s remarks, bin worker Matthew Reid said: \u201cWell the doors are obviously not open.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey say their doors are open for us to go back and get that offer they\u2019ve offered us before, which we\u2019ve already rejected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re just mounting more and more costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Only viable option\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nThe council\u2019s leadership has repeatedly faced calls to resume bins strike negotiations since last summer, with council leader John Cotton arguing last month that Unite had rejected a \u201csuccession of fair offers\u201d that had been put on the table.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Unite] has asked us for stuff that frankly this council will not and cannot concede because it would reopen all of the challenges that we have faced over equal pay,\u201d he said. \u201cChallenges that we\u2019re bringing to a close.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to see this dispute brought to a close \u2013 but what I will not do is put at risk the financial viability of this council.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile the commissioners wrote in their latest report: \u201cWith no negotiations taking place, and no credible basis for any being evident, the council has moved to resolve the matter by offering alternative arrangements to the workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe majority have accepted one or other of these alternatives, but compulsory redundancy has had to be pursued in three cases.<\/p>\n
![\"Birmingham](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_JS326814914.jpg\")
Birmingham City Council leader John Cotton during March’s budget meeting(Image: Nick Wilkinson\/Birmingham Live)<\/p>\n
\u201cMaintaining this direction has required commendable fortitude in the face of frequent criticism and regular protest.\u201d<\/p>\n
They added: \u201cWe have been supportive of this approach and it remains in our view the only viable option open to the council.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Birmingham bins strike hit the bleak one year milestone this week – and could drag on into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,984,748,393,728,4884,528,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-678915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-city-council","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-labour-party","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115851331392593990","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678915","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=678915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Birmingham](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_WhatsApp-Image-2026-01-06-at-194128jpeg.jpg\")
Birmingham bin worker Matthew Reid outside the council house(Image: Alexander Brock)<\/p>\n![\"Bins](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_JS389402071.jpg\")
Bins strike protesters in December 2025(Image: Jacob King\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n