Birmingham council leader grilled on lack of talks with bin worker union after 14 months of strikes
Birmingham Council’s leader has been quizzed on why it has taken several months to say he wants to “get back round the table” with Unite the union.
Birmingham’s bins strike has been rumbling on since January last year following a dispute between the Labour-run council and Unite.
This tension between the two parties was sparked by the loss of the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer role, with striking workers claiming they face a pay cut of £8,000.
But Birmingham City Council has disputed this figure and insisted that a fair offer had been made before it walked away from negotiations back in July.
It said at the time it had “reached the absolute limit” of what it could offer amid equal pay ‘red lines’.
In the following months, the council’s leadership faced pressure from striking workers and opposition councillors to resume negotiations in a bid to end the deadlock.
In a video posted on social media last week however, council leader John Cotton said he wanted to “get round the table with Unite as soon as possible”.
“The people of Birmingham want this resolved,” he said. “The workers want to go back to work.”
At a full council meeting yesterday (March 24), Councillor Cotton was asked why he was making this move now after several months of stalemate since negotiations came to an end.
Green Party councillor Julien Pritchard asked: “Why has it taken him eight months to say he will agree to new talks to resolve the bins strike?”
Councillor Cotton responded: “I’ve been very clear throughout that we want to find a negotiated settlement to this dispute and the only way that we get that is if we get Unite back around the table to engage with us.
“But also, that has to be acknowledging the constraints this council is under, not least with regard to the equal pay liability and also the need to transform the service as well.
“I think we’ve all acknowledged the waste service needed modernisation because it’s not been delivering effectively for the residents of this city.”
He added: “The council has reached out in order to seek an end to this stalemate and I hope that produces some positive results.”
Councillor Pritchard, in his follow-up question, then asked whether the council leader has a date for when these talks could take place – and whether they would happen after the local elections this May.
“I’m not going to provide a running commentary of timetables or negotiations in this chamber – this is not how you undertake industrial relations,” Councillor Cotton responded, prompting groans from the opposition councillors.
Earlier this year, the council’s managing director Joanne Roney opened up about the challenges in finding a resolution and said settling the dispute “cannot worsen the equal pay implications” for the council.
She went on to say that there were also financial ‘best-value’ considerations that will be looked at by government-appointed commissioners, sent in to oversee the council’s financial recovery.
“It is incredibly difficult to find a way through these various hurdles,” she said. “Two offers have been made to try and settle this dispute and both of those offers were rejected by Unite.
“That is why we have not been able to resolve the dispute, because the offers were rejected.”
These remarks prompted a defiant response from Unite, who slammed the comments as “misleading”.
The union claims that a “ballpark” deal had been agreed last year after hours of discussions, but added this figure could not get past the commissioners.
Unite claims a new figure was much lower compared to the “ballpark” one and therefore it couldn’t accept it – the council confirmed that negotiations had ended shortly afterwards.
Ms Roney also added at the time that ‘doors remain open’ if the union wanted to make a counter-proposal.
But refuse collector and Unite member Matthew Reid disagreed, saying: “They say their doors are open for us to go back and get that offer they’ve offered us before, which we’ve already rejected.”
In last week’s video, Councillor Cotton issued a direct message to the striking workers, saying: “We want you to join us in delivering a new, better service for the people of Birmingham.
“I know the last year has been tough for you but the only way that we get through this will be for your union to agree a deal.
“We’ve offered pay protection, new roles and training opportunities – I’m clear we don’t want people to lose their jobs.”
Unite said this week it remains “fully open to return to those negotiations in order to resolve the dispute”.
