Birmingham residents have been warned by the new council leadership that ending the bin strike will not happen overnight, despite a pre-election 'deal' pledge between the Unite union and Labour. New city council leader Councillor Roger Harmer said his minority coalition administration would not be rushed into a deal without first reviewing the current situation and assessing all options.
"I would caution the residents of Birmingham that it will take a little while," he told BirminghamLive during his first official media interviews since becoming leader of a new minority coalition made up of Greens, Liberal Democrats, and Better Birmingham Independents. He referred back to a press conference before last month's local elections, when former Labour leader John Cotton announced an end to the strike was "within sight", saying a 'ballpark' proposal was reached between Unite and Labour politicians including mayor Richard Parker. The 'agreement' included compensatory payouts of up to £16,000 each to hundreds of bin workers affected by job cuts and downgrades.
Councillor Harmer said: "Labour (and Unite) announced what was a proposal shortly before the election, it was not a deal. A deal can only be made between the top officers in the council and the union. Top officers were not involved in that process, so it can't be a deal. Some elements of the Labour/union proposal were interesting, and we always welcome any contributions that might help drive us towards ending the dispute. But one of the things that has dogged resolution of this dispute is people endlessly arguing about who said what and when. As a new administration, it's important for us to draw a line under all those arguments and discussions and go and look at all the facts, take advice, negotiate, and come up with a solution."
He added: "I would caution the residents of Birmingham it will take a little while. It took Labour 18 months to get nowhere. Clearly we want this done as soon as possible, but equally we need to get this done properly so in a few months it doesn't just break. We have to button it down and go through all the due process, and it will take a little while." He would not be drawn on how long 'a while' could be, other than to say it was his 'top priority'. When asked if one option involved firing striking workers, he said: "That is absolutely not what we're aiming to do. That would be a sign of failure if we got to that point."
While the strike continues, the prospect of introducing new bin collection regimes, including weekly food waste and alternating black bin and recycling collections, also remained distant. "Our position is that while the service is not reliable, and it is not, then we should not move to fortnightly collections," he said. He would not countenance people having to wait up to a month for a collection. "We want to get to a position where services are completely reliable." The previous administration had agreed to roll out a new weekly food waste service and switch to fortnightly collections from this month onwards.
The strike, which has now lasted around 17 months, was initially triggered by a dispute between the council and Unite. Former leader John Cotton had pledged that a Labour administration would push the deal through as a matter of absolute priority. The timing of the update was met with scepticism and anger from opposition councillors, with the council’s Tory group leader describing it as a "pathetic attempt to hold on to power before Labour disappear into the abyss". Since then, Unite warned the "deal to end the bin strikes struck by the old political leadership hangs in the balance", while council officers denied there had ever been a deal. A council spokesperson said: "Birmingham City Council were not party to discussions held between Unite and Labour in the run-up to local elections. Therefore, no ‘deal’ exists to ‘hang in the balance’. The statement made in the run-up to the elections by the then-leader of the Labour group was made in a political capacity and not as the leader of the council."
