Unite said workers and communities were paying the price for government inaction over the Birmingham bin strikes.
After Birmingham City Council declared a major incident over the ongoing bin strikes, the Downing Street spokesman said Unite should “focus on negotiating in good faith.”
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner met Birmingham council leaders over the weekend to discuss ways to clear the 17,000 tonnes of uncollected waste across the city.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said workers and communities are paying the price for government inaction.
“If the government were really concerned about the residents of Birmingham they would get the decision-makers in a room of which they are clearly one, to ensure that Unite’s solutions on the table were adopted,” Graham said.
“The bottom line about this dispute is that these workers, woke up one morning to be told they would be taking up to an £8,000 pay cut. They are being made to pay the price for austerity and bad decisions by Birmingham City Council.”
Graham accused the leader of the council of being “missing in action” as they have not been in any of the talks.
“Unite has said it is ready to negotiate anytime and every day if necessary,” Graham said.
The dispute is over the decision to remove Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles.
Unite said staff performing the “safety-critical” WRCO role will lose around £8,000 a year on average under the plans.
Birmingham City Council disputes Unite’s figures and says the changes are being made due to a statutory requirement under the Environmental Act 2021 to ensure households can better separate food waste, glass, plastics, metals, paper and cardboard.
The Downing Street spokesman also said Unite should drop their opposition to changes “needed to resolve long-standing equal pay issues”.
Graham responded by saying Unite has already agreed on major changes and in the union’s current proposals there are no equal pay issues.
Unite’s General Secretary accused Birmingham City Council of being determined to impose cuts on workers at any cost.
Major incident
Last week, Birmingham City Council declared a major incident over the ongoing waste strikes.
Unite criticised the decision to declare a major incident, saying it would cost more than resolving the dispute.
The council said declaring a major incident will allow them to quickly deploy an additional 35 vehicles and crews for street cleansing and fly-tip removal across the city.
Usually, 200 vehicles are deployed to collect waste daily over 8-hour shifts, which would make over 500,000 collections per week.
The contingency allows 90 vehicles to be deployed per day which should make 360,000 collections per week.
