No more bin collections till Xmas!
Horrifying prospect facing Birmingham residents after binmen threaten to extend strike that’s lasted 6 weeks
AFTER six weeks without rubbish collections, Birmingham’s streets have become a stinking, rat-infested mess.
But things could be about to get even worse – after striking binmen yesterday threatened to extend their walkouts until Christmas.
Residents have been left with more than a dozen overstuffed binbags outside their front doors following the six- week strike. Many bags have split or been torn open by animals.
Experts say the city could soon become overrun with vermin if the rubbish is allowed to continue piling up.
Bin workers have been holding daily walkouts over changes to working practices since June 30. There is also an overtime ban in place and workers are returning to depots for all breaks, meaning far fewer collections are being carried out.
Yesterday the Unite union announced that workers will now carry out three hour-long walkouts a day.
It means they will return to depots five times a day – and has prompted accusations the union is holding Birmingham to ransom. One source said: ‘We fear they will spend most of the time just driving and nothing will be collected.’
Unite is also balloting workers to renew its industrial action mandate, which could result in more strikes lasting until December. The current wave of strikes was due to end on September 21.
One of the worst affected areas is Alum Rock, a suburb two miles from the city centre. Javed Iqbal, of the Alum Rock Community Forum, said: ‘It is disgusting, dangerous and we won’t stand for it any longer. People are taking rub- bish to the tips themselves but it isn’t enough – it stinks.’ Ian Sharpe, who runs Environmental Pest Control, told Sky News: ‘It is like a rat hotel. ‘A happy rat is going to breed more often and their litters are going to be bigger. They can have anything up to 14 babies in any one go.’ The strikes are in response to a restructuring plan by the council that Unite claims would cost 113 jobs, with some workers facing the loss of £5,000 a year. The council says the plan will save £5 million a year. Affected staff have been offered either a lower grade role and drop in salary or an alternative role at the same pay grade in other departments. But Unite argues the jobs are not genuine alternatives.
The council is part way through a ‘ contingency plan’ that is attempting to clear every street by tomorrow. So far, it says it has cleared the backlog at 90 per cent of the city’s 8,200 streets.
Unite assistant general secretary Howard Beckett said: ‘We continue to hold talks with the council, but progress has been slow ... In the absence of a settlement, we will be balloting our members on whether they wish to take strike action and/or industrial action short of a strike after the current industrial action comes to an end.
‘A renewed industrial action mandate could see this dispute continuing up to Christmas.’
Birmingham City Council said: ‘An offer has been tabled to Unite to take the disputed points from our proposal to modernise refuse collection to [conciliation service] ACAS.
‘Changes ... involve no job losses as permanent alternatives are available for those affected at the same and higher grades – and there will be more than 200 permanent new jobs created.’