Unite union bosses held up Birmingham bin strike deal, BBC told

A deal between striking bin workers and Birmingham City Council could have been reached were it not for the interventions of the Unite union’s national leadership team, the BBC has been told.

A message seen by the BBC appears to suggest some local Unite members are dissatisfied with how the dispute has been handled. Thousands of tonnes of rubbish have been left uncollected on the city’s streets.

A number of senior Labour figures outside the council, including some MPs, say they understand a deal with local reps would have been reached during the rolling strike in January and February were it not for the involvement of national figures.

The BBC has approached Unite for a response to the claims.

Individuals with knowledge of a proposed deal say it was backed by refuse workers at two of Birmingham City Council’s three bin lorry depots, but national Unite figures were involved at the third site where it was rejected.

Sources, including some with extensive union experience, say the handling of the dispute is being influenced by power struggles within Unite.

A longstanding Unite member from the West Midlands told the BBC that while commissioners at the council bore some of the responsibility for the dispute, the regional office of Unite was unhappy it had been bypassed.

They said: “Unions traditionally have been about the art of the deal on behalf of their members. Instead, Unite and some others seem to be in the grip of people for whom disruption, disputes and revolution are their priority.”

The industrial action, which began in January and escalated to an all-out walkout in March, has seen hundreds of Birmingham’s refuse workers on strike.

After weeks of stalemate, on 31 March the Labour-run council declared a major incident, citing the accumulation of an estimated 17,000 tonnes of rubbish on city streets.

At the same time, a leaked letter from Unite’s General Secretary Sharon Graham to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner referred to local negotiations as having descended into “farce”.

Laying the blame at the feet of government commissioners currently overseeing Birmingham council’s financial recovery, Graham said: “Every attempt being made to solve the dispute by Unite negotiators in the room, is being met with ‘a computer says no’ answer.”

As residents’ frustrations have increased about the situation, focus fell on the tactics being used by picketers and demonstrators to delay non-striking crews and their wagons from leaving depots.

Within a day of a visit from local government minister Jim McMahon, there was a change in policing tactics. Striking workers told the BBC they had been threatened with arrest if they continued to delay vehicles.

This appeared to coincide with a fresh impetus in talks between the two sides. The BBC understands talks took place over the weekend and continued into Monday and Tuesday.