Mountains of waste piled up on streets and reports of rats the size of kittens as an all-out strike in Birmingham continues. What is the reason for the industrial action and when will it end?
Currently over 17,000 tonnes of waste is uncollected across Birmingham because of workers participating in strike action throughout 2025.
Birmingham City Council declared a major incident over the backlog of waste last week and West Midlands Fire Service have urged residents to take extra care when storing and disposing waste.
Are you confused about the Birmingham bin strikes? A lot of people are. Having to sort through the array of claims and counter claims is not only hard work but makes finding out the facts much more difficult.
With fears the industrial action could continue into the summer, Circular Online has put together an explainer on the situation in Birmingham.
What is the dispute about?
Unite the Union and Birmingham City Council have been in dispute since last summer, with strike action beginning in January 2025.
The dispute is over the council’s decision to remove Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles.
Unite said staff performing the “safety-critical” WRCO role will lose around £8,000 a year under the plans.
This figure is disputed by the authority with an official in the council telling Circular Online that claims that 150 people could lose £8,000 a year in pay are “incorrect”.
The official said that the number of staff who could lose the maximum amount, which they said is just over £6,000, is 17 people and they will have “pay protection” for six months in line with council policy.
Why did the dispute escalate last week?
An increasingly bitter war of words between the council and Unite escalated last week after the council declared a major incident in response to the backlog of waste.
Unite called the decision an attempt to “crush any opposition to attacks on jobs, pay and conditions that are set to extend to other workers across the council”.
Throughout the industrial action, residents have been relying on two mobile household waste centres, which visit ten different locations across the city each week, to dispose of their waste.
The contingency allows 90 vehicles to be deployed per day which the council says should make 360,000 collections per week.
Usually, 200 vehicles are deployed to collect waste daily over 8-hour shifts, which would make over 500,000 collections per week.
The council also said its decision to declare a major incident was partly because of picket lines blocking access to waste depots, saying they can only get one vehicle out per hour.
Throughout the dispute, Unite has said the council has “smeared” the behaviour of workers on picket lines.
Has the government got involved?
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner met council leaders in Birmingham on Saturday to discuss ways to clear the waste backlog.
The Deputy PM’s visit came after a letter from Unite general secretary Sharon Graham was leaked to the BBC.
According to the BBC’s report, Graham told Rayner the government can no longer say the strike is “nothing to do with us” and claimed “false narratives” have been used in government statements on the dispute.
A Downing Street spokesman also said Unite need to “focus on negotiating in good faith, drop their opposition to changes needed to resolve long-standing equal pay issues and get round the table with the council to bring this strike to an end.”
Graham responded by saying workers and communities are paying the price for government inaction.
“It is not surprising that many workers in Britain question the Labour government’s commitment to working people when it issues a statement clearly blaming bin workers in a dispute not of their making,” Graham said.
When will the dispute end?
Lichfield District Council has said it will help clear the mountains of waste piled up across the city’s streets. The service will be provided at a commercial rate, which means Birmingham taxpayers will foot the bill.
While this may offer residents some respite from the waste piling up outside their homes, there is little indication there has been progress in bringing the dispute to an end.
Unfortunately for the city’s residents, there appears to have been little progress made in talks between Unite and Birmingham City Council so far.
Hopefully, an agreement can be reached soon so the people of Birmingham no longer have to cope with a city drowning in waste.
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