The city’s refuse workers, who have been engaged in industrial action since January 2025, voted “overwhelmingly” to extend their industrial action mandate until March 2026, raising the prospect of disruption stretching past Christmas and into spring.
In response, Birmingham City Council suggested that while it wanted to resolve the dispute, changes to the city’s waste service need to proceed.
A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said: “This is a service that needs to be transformed to one that citizens of Birmingham deserve and we cannot delay this any longer.
“The council sought to be reasonable and flexible throughout this process, but Unite rejected all our offers.
“We want to resolve this dispute but we need to press ahead with the improvement of the service.
“Our contingency plan is working and we are collecting household waste as scheduled, though for clarity this ballot was not about any new negotiations or offers, but is part of Unite’s practice of refreshing their mandates for industrial action at regular periods during a dispute.”
Pay and role cuts at the heart of the dispute
The dispute centres on Birmingham City Council’s decision to abolish the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) role.
The union said it feared that 150 workers faced losing £8,000 a year alongside claims of additional cuts to their pension payments.
The industrial action escalated into all-out strikes on 11 March 2025, with refuse collections heavily affected across the city.
Unite’s National Lead Officer, Onay Kasab, said: “Strike action will continue for as long as necessary with Unite’s unyielding support.
“The only way this dispute will end is with a fair and reasonable deal for Birmingham’s bin workers.”
Ending of negotiations
The dispute has drawn national attention due to its scale and the financial pressures on Birmingham City Council, which effectively declared bankruptcy in September 2023.
The local authority has been overseen by government-appointed commissioners since then.
Unite has claimed that the council’s restructuring measures are part of wider austerity-driven cost-cutting, with refuse workers left to bear the brunt.
On 9 July 2025, Birmingham City Council’s Leader, Councillor John Cotton, announced that the Labour-run council was “walking away” from ongoing negotiations with Unite.
He stated that the authority had “reached the absolute limit of what we can offer”, emphasising the need to proceed – for both financial sustainability and service improvement – even though the union had “rejected all offers”.
