Collections resume after Bristol strike resolved

Waste collection and street cleansing staff employed by the council's waste collection contractor SITA UK had walked out on Friday May 22 demanding a 5% pay rise to reflect inflation increases, with strikes continuing on the next Monday and Friday (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, following threats to strike every Monday and Friday until their demands were met, industrial action was halted last Monday (June 8) when SITA employees belonging to the union UNITE voted to accept a three year pay deal offered by the council.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com today (June 15), a spokeswoman for the council said that the collections had begun to get back to normal following the talks.

She said: “Our contractors worked to deliver a service and brought some more people in and were operating a catch-up service which meant that they were some delays but as I understand, towards the end of last week we were up and running as normal.”

SITA explained that it had brought workers in from across the south of England to help ease the backlog of refuse caused in the lead-up to the resolution, which is believed to have affect 35,000 households in the Bristol area and led to a suspension of the city's food waste collection service. Recycling remained unaffected.

Councillor Gary Hopkins, environment leader for the Liberal Democrats, said: “The city council welcomes the decision by SITA employees to now accept the 2.75% pay award in a deal that includes binding arbitration. This guarantees that there can be no strike action over pay by SITA employees in the city again until 2011.”

“Bristol city council led on working up the detail of the arbitration offer, for which there was no additional cost to the council, and is pleased its efforts to bring SITA and UNITE together for some tough negotiations have resulted in this positive outcome for Bristol residents.”

Backlog

Mr Hopkins added: “I would like to thank the people of Bristol for their patience and understanding during what has been a difficult time. One of the worst things about the strike was the affect on the food waste collections. Now the waste and recycling services are back online, let's get the city recycling again.”

Echoing Cllr Hopkins' sentiments, Steve Bell, contract general manager at SITA, said: “Following negotiations between SITA, Bristol city council and Unite, the union and its members voted to accept the 2.75% pay increase linked to arbitration. The deal also links future pay negotiations to ACAS, ensuring that future disruptions in Bristol's recycling and waste collection services are prevented.”