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Bin strikes could spread to rest of UK, union chief warns - as she claims Labour 'doesn't understand basics' of row
15 April 2025, 09:30 | Updated: 15 April 2025, 09:54
The head of the union at the centre of the Birmingham bin strikes has warned they could spread to other parts of the country.
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Sharon Graham, who runs the Unite union, also slammed the Labour government - telling LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast that ministers "don't seem to understand the basics of what's going on here".
Asked how likely it was that the bin strikes, which have gone on for over a month, could spread to other parts of the country, Ms Graham said: "Well, if other councils decide to make low paid workers pay for bad decisions that they did not make, workers paying the price yet again, then absolutely, of course, we all have to take action in those other areas."
She was critical of Labour's inaction in the ongoing dispute between bin workers and Birmingham City Council, saying: "It's taken the government a huge amount of time to get involved in the dispute".
She added: "I've been urging them to do that for weeks and now they are. They don't seem to understand the basics of what's going on here. These workers are being asked to lose £8,000 of their pay. That is essentially a quarter of their pay."
Read more: 'Public health emergency should be declared in Birmingham', says Tory councillor
The council have argued that workers will not lose any money, but Ms Graham said that it was "untrue".
She said: "Everybody wants to go back to work. Nobody wants to be out on strike, not least these low paid workers.
"But when you've got a situation where workers are faced with losing £8,000 in pay, when they're faced with that, and another set of workers have been told that they may do that too because of bad decisions not made by them but made by this council, I don't know what the government thinks these workers are going to be able to do.
"How are they going to pay their mortgages? How are they going to pay their rent? The government needs to get around the table.
"I'm happy to be there. The leader of the council must be there so that we can deal and finalise this dispute."
Bin workers rejected an offer from the council to halt the long-running dispute on Monday.
Rubbish has been piling up on the city’s streets and there have been warnings of a public health emergency as hundreds of workers have been on all-out strike for more than a month.
A small number of office-based military planners were called in by the government to give logistical support to clean up the streets.
More than 11,000 tonnes of waste has been collected during efforts to clear the backlog of rubbish, according to local government minister Jim McMahon.
He said the council had put a “fair and reasonable” offer on the table.
Unite said its members in Birmingham voted overwhelmingly against what the union described as the council’s “totally inadequate” offer, which it maintained still included pay cuts.
