Union boss to lead crunch talks as Birmingham scrambles to end bin strikes after rubbish piled up on streets
30 April 2025, 10:25
The general secretary of the Unite union is to lead crucial talks aimed at resolving the long-running Birmingham bin strikes amid a bitter dispute over pay and jobs that saw rubbish piling up on the streets.
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Sharon Graham will head the union’s negotiating team at talks on Thursday in a fresh bid to resolve the row.
Union members have been on strike for more than a month, but Unite said last week it believed a deal to end the feud could be “within touching distance”.
A row erupted on Tuesday when the union accused Birmingham City Council of planning to slash the pay of bin lorry drivers by up to £8,000.
The council insisted it is carrying out a “fair and transparent” job evaluation process, agreed with trade unions, to ensure it complies with equal pay laws.
Read more: ‘There are red lines we won’t cross’, Birmingham council leader says as bins strikes drag on
Ms Graham said: “Unite will not stand by and allow the council to inflict these savage pay cuts on workers. It will not be accepted.
“No worker should be expected to lose these eye-watering amounts of money from their pay packet.”
The long-running strike has been on-going since the beginning of the year with a full on strike in place since March 11th as all workers agreed to walk out to fight against the loss of jobs and pay.
Ms Graham previously told LBC: "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."
As it stands, no official end date has been given but Birmingham City Council is hoping for rubbish collections to return to normal as soon as possible.
Residents have been advised to continue putting out rubbish as normal and leaving it there until it's collected. Recycling collections are currently suspended with people advised to head to local centres to do so.
