GMB warns strike will see half UKs bins uncollected

Around three million public sector workers are set to strike over central government pension reforms. And the general union GMB says this will bring the country including local authority waste collection services in many parts of the country – to a standstill. GMB is the main union for collection operatives and has around 50,000 as members.

Next Wednesday we expect that any recycling or bins that would normally collected by local authority staff will not be lifted, said Justin Bowden, national officer at GMB. That represents just under half of all councils. In addition to that we expect there are a number of contracts where the workforce are still members of the local government pension scheme. So at least half of all bins will not be collected.

Mr Bowdens comments were echoed by public services union UNISON, which also has many refuse collectors as members. It described the TUC Day of Action as the biggest strike in living memory.

A UNISON spokeswoman said: A big proportion of refuse workers will be involved in the industrial action and in those areas where waste collections are due to take place, we would not expect those services to go ahead especially because, for health and safety reasons, you need a certain number of people to make up a collection crew.

Disruption

To prepare for the strike, some councils have started warning residents about the possibility of service disruption.

In Exeter, the city council has advised residents with a refuse collection on the same day to plan ahead, because it says the collections are likely to be cancelled. If the collections are not carried out, the council is advising residents to put their bins out on their next collection day two weeks later (December 14).

We are asking people to think ahead and do whatever they can to reduce their black bin or black bag waste, explained Robert Norley, head of environmental services at the council. With the limited resources we will have on the strike day, our priority will be collecting black bags from properties with limited storage. It will be very helpful if everyone can do their bit to cut down on waste during the national dispute.

Meanwhile, Fylde borough council said that its green bin collection service will not be available and its green bin recycling collections might be affected.

And, Birmingham city council, which is the largest local authority in the UK and runs an in-house collections service, said it was putting contingency plans in place to minimise anticipated disruption. The council only this week avoided industrial action by its refuse collectors who had planned to strike from November 18-22 over changes to collection rounds.