Every party hoping to play a part in running Birmingham City Council has pledged that ending the bin strike will be a first priority. The city has been left in limbo after voters backed a rainbow of parties and groups, leaving no single party with a mandate to govern alone. Reform UK, the Greens, Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and Independent groups will spend the next few days jostling for position and making deals to form a coalition that can lead the city for the next four years.
Meanwhile, the bins crisis continues. It has now been more than 17 months since bin workers went on strike, initially on occasional days and then all-out. No deal has been reached to end it. Recycling has not been collected from the kerbside for over a year. The strike has also run up a massive council bill for agency staff and other contingency measures.
Labour Party
Just ahead of the election, in a move dismissed by rivals as a political stunt, Labour announced they had reached an 'agreement' with Unite the union that would end the strike if Labour came to power or, critically, 'be part of a coalition'. The 'deal' has no legal basis as yet, as it would require the backing of new councillors, council officials, commissioners, and auditors to ensure it does not breach strict equal pay concerns. However, the party is adamant the deal works and is cost-effective.
Reform UK
Jex Parkin, its newly elected councillor for Kingstanding, represented the party at the BirminghamLive pre-election hustings last month. He said the impact of the strike was a “sad indictment on the second city” and that his party would ensure it had the “right people” in any negotiations, such as business leaders. He also said the critical issue was to 'bridge the legal gap in advice being received' by the council and the union Unite. Following Labour's 'deal' announcement, the party added it had been in its own discussions with Unite and would work urgently to end the strike if it came into power.
Green Party
The long dispute has been 'scandalous' for the city, Greens local leader Julien Pritchard has said. His party would get 'back round the table as soon as possible' with Unite.
Conservatives
Robert Alden had argued at the BirminghamLive hustings that the first step to ending the strike was the 'people at the top of the council getting in with the people from the top of the union and setting the red lines' before negotiators debate those points. The council’s leadership would then be brought back into the conversation to 'unlock logjams'. He had dismissed the Labour 'deal' as a stunt.
Liberal Democrats
Its leader Roger Harmer had described negotiations ending last July as “appalling”. He pledged that the Lib Dems would get a deal done.
Independents
Nosheen Khalid, new councillor for Alum Rock, told the BirminghamLive hustings that it was 'absolutely shameful' that a deal had not been done. She said the strike could be “easily resolved through dialogue”. Shakeel Afsar, not a candidate but representing pro-Palestine independents, said striking bin men just want to “be able to feed their families” and added: “We do need to negotiate, we do need to look at legal but we also need to look at the sheer incompetence in terms of how we got to this place in the first place”.
The bins strike dispute was initially sparked by the loss of the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer role on its fleet of bin trucks, and later escalated when drivers were also told their job was being downgraded and pay cut as part of a 'transformation' programme.
