Bin strike has cost council £14m as blacklisting row erupts

The Birmingham bin strike has cost the city council £14 million so far, according to a council report, as the dispute enters its eighth month with no end in sight.

The figure, published in October, comes as the council faces fresh criticism over its handling of the dispute, including allegations that agency workers were threatened with losing permanent jobs if they joined the picket lines.

Blacklisting allegations

On 9 October, a manager at recruitment agency Job and Talent was recorded telling agency workers that the council would not give permanent jobs to anyone who joined the picket line.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham accused the council of blacklisting workers for lawful trade union activity. "Blacklisting workers for union activities is despicable. Those who do it are breaking the law and must be held to account," she said. The union has called for an independent investigation.

Equal pay figure questioned

On 15 October the Birmingham Mail reported that the council's equal pay settlement was a fraction of the £760 million figure originally claimed when the authority issued its Section 114 notice in September 2023.

The equal pay bill has been central to the dispute. The council says the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer role it wants to remove could expose it to further equal pay claims because it is mostly done by men.

Ms Graham said: "The ongoing bin strike is a direct result of the council's mismanagement of its finances. Unite has repeatedly provided the council with expert legal advice to demonstrate it was making the wrong calculations on equal pay, but the council was too arrogant to even consider it."

Seven months of disruption

The all-out strike began on 11 March. By the end of that month, 17,000 tonnes of rubbish had built up on the streets and the council declared a major incident. In April the Government called in military planners to help with logistics.

In May the council won a court injunction to stop protesters blocking bin lorries from leaving depots, and in May and July other trade unions organised "megapickets" at depots across the city in solidarity with the strikers.

Since then, collections have continued using agency staff, but the underlying dispute over pay and the WRCO role remains unresolved.

A political headache

The strike has also caused tension between Unite and the Labour government. In July, after ministers backed the council, the union said it would review its relationship with the party.

The council has declined requests to release further details of its cost report. Residents, meanwhile, continue to face uncertainty over their collections as the dispute drags on.