Union votes to extend Birmingham bin strike past Christmas

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Bin workers in Birmingham walked out on an all-out strike in March

The long-running Birmingham bin workers' strike could extend past Christmas and into spring 2026, a union has warned.

Unite said its members "overwhelmingly" voted to extend the industrial action to March 2026, which would mark a year since the all-out strike began.

Workers in the city walked out almost six months ago in a dispute over pay and plans to downgrade some job roles.

Birmingham City Council said it had been "reasonable and flexible", but the service needed to be transformed to one residents deserved.

The union's general secretary, Sharon Graham, reiterated previous claims that government-appointed commissioners scuppered a deal that would have ended the dispute, adding that the "ball is in the government's court".

"Council workers are being lined up to pay the price for years of austerity," she added.

The government called on Unite to suspend the strike and work with the council to find a resolution.

Piles of rubbish, including this one pictured on 22 July, have accumulated on the streets of Birmingham since the strike began

On-and-off industrial action began on 6 January, with 12 walkouts planned across four months, before Unite members started an all-out strike on 11 March.

The union claimed Grade 4 drivers faced losing up to £8,000 a year, due to the council's decision to remove Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles.

Under the council's job re-evaluation process, the role of driver is set to be downgraded, with the Union claiming 170 workers out of the council's 400-strong workforce could be affected by the annual pay cut.

The local authority has defended its job evaluation process as "fair and transparent" and said affected workers had been offered other jobs, voluntary redundancy or pay protection for six months.

The first few weeks of the all-out strike saw up to 17,000 tonnes of waste pile up on the streets of Birmingham as the authority struggled to get its waste trucks out to residents' homes.

This led to the authority declaring a major incident on 31 March, which allowed it to increase the availability of street cleansing and fly-tipping removal, with an extra 35 vehicles and crews.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham accused the council of resorting to a "fire and rehire" strategy

A spokesperson for Birmingham City Council said: "This is a service that needs to be transformed to one that citizens of Birmingham deserve and we cannot delay this any longer.

"The council sought to be reasonable and flexible throughout this process, but Unite rejected all our offers."

The authority wanted to resolve the dispute, the spokesperson added, but needed to "press ahead with the improvement of the service".

They said the contingency plan was working and the council was collecting household waste "as scheduled".

Negotiations, which were mediated by conciliation service Acas since May, broke down when council leader John Cotton confirmed the authority was "walking away" in July.

The head of the Labour-run council said it "reached the absolute limit" of what it could offer and pledged to "press ahead to both address our equal pay risk and make much needed improvements to the waste service".

Unite claimed a "ball park" deal had been agreed but "could not get past" the government commissioners, appointed shortly after the council declared effective bankruptcy in 2023.

Ms Graham previously claimed the council had resorted to a "fire and rehire" strategy and she said threats would not work.

'As long as necessary'

On 11 July, Unite announced it had suspended Angela Rayner from her membership of the union due to the row and said it would also re-examine its relationship with Labour after an emergency motion at its conference in Brighton.

The deputy prime minister has been urging striking bin workers to accept a deal to end the dispute.

Unite national lead officer Onay Kasab said politicians' treatment of the refuse workers was "amongst the worst Unite has ever seen".

He said the only way the dispute would end was with a "fair and reasonable deal" for its members.

"Strike action will continue for as long as necessary with Unite's unyielding support," he added.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said it was committed to supporting Birmingham's "long-term transformation" and finding a sustainable resolution to equal pay issues

"Our position remains clear," a spokesperson said. "Unite should suspend the strike and work with the council on a sustainable way forward."

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