Government sitting on hands over Birmingham bin strike

The government is sitting on its hands over the Birmingham bin strike as negotiations in the dispute descend into farce, a union boss says.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has told Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner the government can no longer say it is “nothing to do with us. We can’t get involved”.

In a letter to Rayner, leaked to the BBC, Graham also claims “false narratives” have been used in government statements on the dispute that has left more than 17,000 tonnes of waste on city streets.

Birmingham City Council said it was “grateful for the government’s support”, while the government said the dispute should remain “locally led” while calling for “an immediate agreement”.

“Every attempt being made to solve the dispute by Unite negotiators in the room, is being met with ‘a computer says no’ answer,” Graham told Rayner in her letter.

Unite has claimed a planned restructuring of Birmingham’s refuse service would see 50 workers lose £8,000 a year and about 20 lose £2,000 per annum.

However, the local authority rejects that and says under its pay restructuring plan a total of only 17 workers would face up to a £6,000 loss per year. Councillors have added that under other deals offered, no worker needed “to lose a penny”.

“Let me be very clear that the pay of these workers is being cut by a Labour council under your watch. That is a fact that can’t be avoided,” Graham wrote.

“The current escalation increasingly looks like a declaration of war on these workers.”

In a statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday, local government minister Jim McMahon had relied on “false narratives” around the proposals and demonstrated a lack of understanding about the dispute, Graham writes in her letter.

She goes on to argue councillors involved in negotiations have no power to make decisions.

“This predetermined charade is played out after ‘consultation’ with those outside the room – namely the government-appointed commissioner Max Caller, who is directly under your department and your authority,” she said.

“Mr Caller is supposed to be acting in an advisory capacity. However, he has been acting as the principal decision maker.”

Caller was brought in by the previous Conservative government in 2023, when the council declared itself essentially bankrupt, having paid out more than £1bn in equal pay claims.

The payouts were part of a wider financial crisis that left the council with the greatest level of debt of any local authority in England.

“I am of course acutely aware of the financial position of the council,” wrote Graham.

“But it is clear to me that my members’ pockets are being picked to make savings due to historic debts.

“Indeed, Birmingham Council are currently making repayments (including interest) of £250m per year, almost all of it to the Treasury, on a £3.9bn debt.”

While accepting the government has no “appetite for debt cancellation”, she said reducing the repayment period and the rate of interest the council is paying the government over its debts could be reviewed.

”We need to have an emergency meeting with the leader of the council, regarding debt restructuring and immediately investigate the role of the commissioner in the dispute,” she said.

“We can then remove the threat of cutting £8,000 per year from our members‘ pay packets and discuss sensible solutions.”

Without addressing these problems with councils more widely, Graham concluded “we are looking at a full-blown crisis in local government”.

A government spokesperson said: “It is right that this continues to be a locally led response, as is usual in the case of council-run services.

“But we are monitoring the situation closely and will not hesitate to act should the council require additional support.”

The city council said the need to “modernise the waste service and eliminate any future equal pay risk” was unrelated to the debt issues it has.

“A fair and reasonable offer remains on the table which would bring this dispute to an end,” a spokesperson added.

By Elizabeth Glinka, West Midlands Political Editor

The Unite general secretary has been notable largely by her absence during this strike.

Sharon Graham seldom pulls her punches, but apart from giving a few quotes, she has not been on picket lines, and failed to give interviews bashing the council or the government.

As her letter indicates, senior figures have conversations behind the scenes, but so far this dispute appears intractable and as the weather forecast predicts highs of 20C, the mood in the city continues to sour.

With some union members under threat of redundancy and the declaration of a major incident just this week, the council position appears to be hardening. This letter to the deputy prime minister seems to be an attempt to shift the dial.

The council says the changes it is making to pay grades within the refuse service, are inextricably linked to equal pay. It must change or face more equal pay claims.

Those claims running into three quarters of a billion pounds were one of the driving factors that pushed the council into effective bankruptcy in 2023.

Ms Graham appears to be saying to the government – help the council with its debt, and my members might have more of a chance of a deal.