Birmingham bin strike: Collectors 'getting grief on streets'

A Birmingham bin worker set to strike in a dispute which previously saw rubbish piled up in roads said collectors were getting abuse on social media and "grief" on the streets.

Bob, not his real name, said: "Last time it felt like Birmingham was behind us, but the tide is turning."

Unite has announced a strike in a row over payments to GMB members who did not take part in previous action.

The city council has urged Unite to continue talks to resolve the dispute.

Bob, a Unite member who voted to take strike action, said bin collectors were being sworn at by some drivers and called greedy and lazy in online comments.

The refuse truck driver said he had noticed a change on the streets recently, with residents questioning them about the latest action.

Bob said the negative comments were mainly on social media but he added that people did not understand the full facts.

"Some angry drivers are shouting things like 'aren't you going on strike soon?'

"We hate it. We do actually care and we enjoy our work.

"All this is absolutely painful."

Bob said he "hated" having to sometimes clear just one side of a street to fit the work-to-rule.

But he added: "You have got to have parity. You can't have one section of the workforce being paid more than the other."

Industrial action in 2017 lasted nearly three months and saw thousands of tonnes of rubbish piled up on Birmingham's streets.

It also led to the resignation of Birmingham City Council leader John Clancy.

About 300 Unite members have been working to rule since 29 December because of the payments row.

On Monday, the union said it was unhappy with the council's response and members would walk out for two days a week from 19 February.

Some Birmingham residents said they sympathised with the bin workers, including Stella Taylor from Kings Norton.

"If it's true what's happened that the other members of a different union got a payment, well that's not fair," she said.

Sandra Loutari also said during the last strike her rubbish was not collected for "about two months" and she wanted to see the action resolved "as soon as possible".

Despite voting to strike, Bob said the situation had "snowballed and snowballed" since the initial action and he hoped more disruption could be avoided.

He said posts by bin workers in closed social media groups showed they were worried about the financial impact of future action.

"We are absolutely devastated. We are praying that it won't go that far," he said.

Bob said Unite had subsidised its members' lost earnings during the 2017 strike but he had still had to "cut back in every way".

Unite claims the payment to GMB members meant its own striking members were "blacklisted".

However, GMB said none of its workers had "received any additional payment for not striking".

Birmingham City Council said the payments to GMB members "were properly made for a failure to consult during the talks that ended the 2017 dispute".

"We would urge Unite to continue talks as we want to resolve this matter, so citizens get the refuse collection service they rightly expect and deserve," a spokesman added.

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