The Government is being urged to intervene in a dispute involving refuse collectors which is leading to tonnes of rubbish piling up on the streets of one of the country’s biggest cities.
Members of Unite in Birmingham launched an all-out strike last month in a dispute over pay and jobs, which is causing misery for residents who say they face a public health crisis.
The council declared the dispute a major incident earlier this week in a bid to increase collections of bin sacks.
Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham has written to the Government saying it can no longer “sit on its hands”.
In a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, the Unite leader said talks with the council were a “charade” because officials had to defer to commissioners who were called in by the previous Conservative government to run the authority’s finances.
“This is an escalating issue and the Government cannot simply sit on its hands saying ‘nothing to do with us. We can’t get involved’,” she wrote.
“Let me be very clear, that the pay of these workers is being cut by a Labour council under your watch. The current escalation increasingly looks like a declaration of war on these workers.”
A Government spokesperson said: “The waste dispute in Birmingham is causing misery and disruption to residents and so we are urging for an immediate agreement to be made.
“It is right that this continues to be a locally led response, as is usual in the case of council-run services. But we are monitoring the situation closely and will not hesitate to act should the council require additional support.”
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