Birmingham’s Bin Strike: A Crisis of Leadership, Truth and Nerves

Why does legal advice remains hidden, and do political leaders still hold any authority over the commissioners who increasingly appear to run the show.

Editor, midlandsGRIT

www.midlandsGRIT.co.uk

The Birmingham bin dispute has now rolled into its seventh month, and with each passing week the situation grows more serious, more expensive, and more politically volatile. What began as a disagreement over pay has evolved into something much broader, touching on the integrity of council leadership, the influence of commissioners, the treatment of agency workers, and the future of Labour in the city.

This is no longer merely an industrial dispute. It is a test of political courage in a city once considered Labour’s impenetrable citadel, now cracking under pressure.

As Editor of midlandsGRIT, I approached Cllr John Cotton, Labour Leader of Birmingham City Council, with a set of straightforward questions: why talks collapsed, why the council has spent more prolonging the strike than it would cost to settle it, why legal advice remains hidden, and whether political leaders still hold any authority over the commissioners who increasingly appear to run the show.

No response came back before the deadline. Perhaps he was preoccupied. Perhaps the spiralling scale of the dispute has become too unwieldy for a clean statement. Or perhaps silence is, in its own way, a response. Either way, Birmingham’s residents, workers, businesses and elected members deserve answers.

The Negotiations That “Ended Themselves”

Unite, the bin workers union, most recent letter to councillors makes one point uncomfortably clear: the union remains willing to return to the table at any moment. It disputes entirely the line being circulated by some senior council officers that Unite walked away.

The timeline is no longer contested. Talks began at ACAS in May. A “ballpark settlement” was reached between Unite’s Sharon Graham and the council’s managing director (the dreary new title for the councils Town Clerk) Joanne Roney. Roney paused the talks, saying she needed time to consult commissioners. When she returned, the written offer had shrunk significantly. Then, on 9 July, the council issued a statement declaring that negotiations had reached “the end”.

It was not the union that withdrew. The council walked out of its own negotiations, and it did so publicly.

Since then, the strike has continued to grow in strength, scope and cost.

Millions Lost, Nothing Gained

Financially, the figures are staggering. By the council’s own accounting, the strike has cost more than £14 million. Continued on the current path, the hit will reach £26 million by March. These are losses created almost entirely by agency costs, clean-up operations, and lost revenue from abandoned garden-waste collections.

Meanwhile independent analysis suggests Birmingham could recoup £11.5 million immediately by settling the dispute now.

To put this in human terms, the council has already spent more of our money on avoiding a settlement than it claims it will “save” by closing adult day centres and trimming essential services. No responsible authority can defend that arithmetic.

The ballpark deal, with compensation payments of £14,000 to £20,000 per worker, would have been cheaper than the current mess months ago. By Spring 2025, it will look like a bargain lost.

Equal Pay: The Shield That Keeps Moving

Throughout, the council has insisted that its refusal to settle is rooted in the risk of incurring new equal pay liabilities. It is a plausible concern on first hearing, but legal advice from two heavyweight KCs, Oliver Segal and Stuart Brittenden, has dismantled that argument comprehensively.

Their analysis, now widely circulated, states that paying compensation to refuse workers in these circumstances would not create new equal pay liabilities. The workers are in fundamentally different material circumstances due to the council’s own actions, including industrial action and fire-and-rehire proposals.

Unite published its legal advice. The council will not publish its own.

This raises a painfully obvious question: does contradictory advice even exist? And if it does, why would councillors themselves not be allowed to see it?

Meanwhile, the council’s track record on equal pay calculations does not inspire confidence. Only two years ago, Birmingham claimed it faced £760 million in historic liabilities. The final settlement was £250 million, barely a third of the headline figure.

Residents, workers and councillors are entitled to wonder whether “equal pay” is being used as a convenient shield for decisions already taken, or decisions that elected members are too nervous to challenge.

A Workforce at Breaking Point

While the council leadership talks of “modernisation”, the reality inside the depots is something harsher. Reports of bullying, blacklisting, harassment and mismanagement have circulated for months. A recorded conversation at the Atlas depot captured a manager stating that agency workers who refused to cross picket lines would be blocked from securing permanent roles.

It is one thing for an organisation to mishandle a dispute. It is quite another for that organisation to appear complicit, directly or indirectly, in intimidation.

And now the consequences have arrived.

The Escalation: Agency Workers Vote for Strike Action

Shortly after my enquiry to Cllr Cotton went unanswered, Unite issued an update to councillors that fundamentally changes the landscape.

Permanent refuse workers have voted 99 per cent in favour of continuing industrial action on a 75 per cent turnout.

Agency workers, many of whom have worked for the council for years without proper contracts, have voted 100 per cent in favour of beginning industrial action on an 82 per cent turnout.

This is unprecedented.

From 1 December, Job & Talent agency workers will be able to join official picket lines. Both mandates now run to May 2026. The strike will therefore continue through Christmas, into Spring, past the local elections, and potentially into the new political era that follows.

The dispute is no longer limited to one workforce. It now spans two.

A City Losing Patience — And a Political Party Losing Ground

Birmingham Labour is now facing a political terrain unlike anything it has dealt with since the 1990s. Internal polling across various wards points to a growing threat from Reform UK, as well as from emerging Gaza-aligned candidates in areas where Labour’s vote was once taken for granted.

Many councillors privately acknowledge their seats are now “in play”. Some fear they are already lost.

Refuse strikes, especially prolonged ones, are political accelerants. They cut through party loyalty and land directly in the everyday lives of residents. In a city already bruised by cuts, library closures, service failures and equal pay scandals, the bins have become the symbol of a system buckling under its own contradictions.

A settlement would help Labour stabilise its footing. A continued stalemate, by contrast, risks handing whole neighbourhoods to insurgent parties.

If commissioners are blocking a deal, one would expect a loud and public denunciation from elected leaders. If they are not blocking it, then the responsibility sits squarely with the council leadership.

Right now, neither explanation reflects well on those in charge.

Where This Goes Next

Unite’s community support campaign is gathering pace. More than 150 businesses, mosques, churches, gurdwaras and community groups have already signed an open letter calling for the council to return to the ACAS “ballpark” proposal. The signatories include the joint-biggest mosque in the city and the largest gurdwara in the country.

Momentum is shifting. The political cost of inaction is rising. The financial cost has already become indefensible.

The council has a choice: negotiate in good faith with actual decision-makers present, or continue drifting until the dispute becomes not just expensive, but unmanageable.

The city deserves better than drift. Its workers deserve better than threats. Its residents deserve better than silence.

And Birmingham Labour, if it wishes to remain credible, or even viable, must decide who is actually running this city: elected councillors, or commissioners operating in the shadows.

The bin strike is no longer simply about pay. It is about leadership, truth, and the courage to confront a crisis before the crisis confronts you.