Life is difficult for residents of Birmingham, forced to step into the path of oncoming cars to avoid climbing over honking bin bags of nappies and rotting food on the pavements.
As the weather warms up infuriated locals are resorting to spraying Dettol on the growing mountains of bags in a Sisyphean attempt to keep the breeding rats at bay.
And as their smelly, insanitary misery continues more questions are being asked about why they are being forced to endure it.
The city’s striking bin collectors may have initially enjoyed public sympathy as their Unite union claimed 150 workers could lose £8,000 a year in pay because of changes being brought in by the council. But that sympathy is vanishing and the union’s tactics are attracting growing criticism.
Disputes over the number of workers affected won’t go away and attempts to stop waste collection trucks from leaving their depots, have been getting an angry response. Unite’s critics say they have alienated other members of the union movement and the wider Labour Party.
Birmingham’s bin workers began indefinite strike action on 11 March, although walkouts have been taking place since January, saying they are fighting plans to remove some roles and downgrade others.
The council suggested abolishing the “waste recycling and collection officer” positions, which the union had secured in a prior strike. The council deems the roles superfluous and says no job cuts are planned for the 17 affected individuals, who will receive six months of salary guarantees.
Caption: Police officers on hand as members of Unite go on the picket line at Birmingham City Council’s Atlas Depot in Tyseley, Birmingham in March. Matthew Cooper/PA WireBut Unite insists the dispute goes beyond the 17 and beyond the 150 workers facing huge pay cuts and also involves the closure of fair pay progression for hundreds of others earning barely above the minimum wage. The union says the dispute has escalated because the council said that around 200 bin lorry drivers were “also in line for huge pay cuts”.
Some ministers have been reluctant to criticise Unite. But Health Secretary Wes Streeting has pinned the blame directly on the recalcitrant leadership for the deteriorating conditions and disruption in the city.
“It is totally unacceptable that Unite, the trade union, has been blocking bin lorries from leaving the depot,” he said this week. “I understand industrial disputes happen… But what is not acceptable is allowing these sorts of unsanitary conditions to occur on people’s streets.”
‘No one will lose their jobs’
Preet Kaur Gill, the Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, is also putting pressure on the union. “Unite have got to come back around the table with good faith,” she told The i Paper.
Preet Kaur Gill MP says Unite has a responsibility to the people of Birmingham (Photo: Parliament)“This is a small amount of people [the 17 employees]. This post does not exist anywhere else in the country. It’s not an industry standard. No one will lose their jobs. And Unite I have a responsibility to the citizens of Birmingham equally too, to make sure that there is not vermin on our streets.”
But a mild suggestion from House of Commons Leader Lucy Powell that Unite should resume negotiations over Birmingham has already prompted an angry response from the union.
Labour’s leadership has a tricksy relationship with Unite and General Secretary Sharon Graham. While the union gave tens of millions of pounds to Labour over the past decade, it refused to fund party headquarters during last year’s general election campaign or to back Sir Keir Starmer’s manifesto as he shifted to the centre ground.
However, the union donated more than £550,000 to 86 left-leaning MPs in the run up to the election last year.
In 2021 Graham assumed the role of Unite Chief from Len McCluskey, a known anti-capitalist and a close friend of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Almost since Starmer took office last year, she has been a constant irritant. At the party’s September conference, Unite successfully moved a resolution urging the government to reinstate winter fuel allowance cuts for pensioners. She has consistently advocated for a 1 per cent wealth tax on the nation’s wealthiest citizens. She criticised government plans to strengthen worker rights, saying loopholes could lead to it benefiting bad bosses, and has accused Starmer of pursuing austerity measures.
Her methods have baffled fellow union members. According to a union insider, Labour’s win last year has rendered megaphone diplomacy largely ineffective. “For the first time in my career,” they said. “I can pick up the phone and have a direct conversation with the right people in government; we don’t have to shout like we did under the Tories.”
More criticism is being aimed at Unite’s management of the Birmingham bin dispute. A separate union source hinted that Birmingham’s conflict stemmed from Unite’s leadership aiming to impress members with their negotiation skills before upcoming internal elections.
‘The last of the Corbyn gang’
“Unite are the last of the Corbyn gang. They’ve got executive council elections coming up at the end of May, so this is about grandstanding ahead of that. It seems amazing that they’re ploughing so much money into a dispute that is only about 17 workers. But their coffers can’t be limitless,” the source said.
A third trade union source indicated Graham was isolated from the workers’ movement. “Sharon is viewed as a one-step removed and a bit distant; she’s very internally focused and not really engaged in the movement as a whole. Birmingham has shown how tone deaf she can be at points.”
Unite rejects the criticism. “It is outrageous that those with a political axe to grind are trying to undermine workers fighting against brutal wage attacks to score cheap points,” a spokesperson said.
“Unite makes no apologies for defending workers from paying the price for mistakes made by politicians. Birmingham’s refuse workers will have their union’s total backing for as long as it takes.”
Rats, fly-tipping and threat of more bin strikes
Unite and the Birmingham council are still in negotiations. Meanwhile, the 21,000 tonnes of street rubbish are increasing by 1,000 tonnes weekly, creating ideal vermin breeding grounds. A pair of amorous rats can have 200 offspring in a single year.
Added to which, Kaur Gill reported, fly-tipping is now adding to the problem.
“I think what’s happening now is what started off with in certain areas as piles of rubbish is now becoming a fly tipping issue, especially in parts of my constituency, people just coming now and dumping other things like TVs and kitchen cabinets and so forth,” the MP said. “So, this is making the situation really quite difficult in that regard.”
Clare Keogh, Unite’s national officer for local authorities, warned on Sunday that growing anger among refuse workers across the country over council cuts could escalate. But the claim is disputed by the GMB Union and No 10, with Birmingham’s unique situation cited. Faced with a £760 million equal pay bill, Birmingham City Council—Europe’s largest local authority—declared bankruptcy in September 2023.
Backdated equal pay claims might impact other councils. But sources from other unions suggested they would be much more likely to settle with their workforce and argue that the idea of action spreading is a Unite negotiating tactic. So, while residents in other cities will view warnings of more bin strikes with alarm, the rats may not be coming just yet.
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