2025–2026 Birmingham bin strike
| 2025–2026 Birmingham bin strike | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Union poster criticising Birmingham City Council leader John Cotton at a picket outside Birmingham City Council House in May 2025 | |||
| Date | 11 March 2025 – present (1 year and 6 days) | ||
| Location | Birmingham, West Midlands, England | ||
| Caused by | Proposed pay cuts and job cuts by Birmingham City Council | ||
| Goals | Renegotiation of cuts | ||
| Resulted in | Ongoing, not yet decided | ||
| Parties | |||
| |||
| Lead figures | |||
Sharon Graham, Unite
Mick Whelan, ASLEF Dave Calfe, ASLEF Paul W. Fleming, Equity Steve Wright, FBU Matt Wrack, NASUWT Daniel Kebede, NEU Fran Heathcote, PCS Eddie Dempsey, RMT Politicians supportive: John McDonnell, Labour Jeremy Corbyn, Your Party Zarah Sultana, Your Party Zack Polanski, Greens (E&W) John Cotton Cllr, Council leader | |||
The 2025–2026 Birmingham bin strike is an ongoing standoff between striking refuse workers and Birmingham City Council in Birmingham, England. The workers, represented by Unite the Union, began their strike on 11 March 2025 after a dispute with the council over its proposed pay cuts and elimination of Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles.
According to the union, approximately 150 to 170 of its members are facing pay cuts of up to £8,000 annually, with hundreds more losing out on pay progression. The union also argues that the WRCO is important to health and safety. According to the council, only 17 workers would be affected; the impact on pay would be far less; and all those affected by the elimination of the WRCO role have been offered other roles for equivalent pay, training as large goods vehicle (LGV) drivers, or voluntary redundancy payouts. The council also says that the WRCO role does not exist at other councils, and that retaining the role opens it up to equal pay claims, since it is performed mainly by men.
In March 2025, the council declared a major incident after 17,000 tonnes of rubbish were left uncollected on the streets. The council has called on other local authorities to assist with clearing the backlog of rubbish. In April, the government called in army specialists, including office-based military planners, to provide logistical support for the council, rather than deploying soldiers. In July, Unite announced it would review its relationship with the governing Labour Party after the government and the then Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner expressed their support for the council over the strikers. Media reporting has indicated that different areas of the city have been impacted by the strike to different extents, with lower income inner city areas such as Sparkhill, Balsall Heath, Small Heath, Sparkbrook and Ladywood suffering from the piling up of refuse to a greater degree than more affluent suburbs like Harborne and Edgbaston, replicating a pattern seen in the city's previous bin strike in 2017. Rachel Adams, a researcher at the University of Birmingham's Health Services Management Centre, suggested that factors contributing to this include differences in population density, access to transport and distance to waste disposal sites. Some residents of poorer areas also claimed that their localities were also used for flytipping by people from elsewhere, and that wealthier areas were being prioritised for refuse collection rounds. Specific factors behind the disparity—such as the tendency for residents in wealthier areas to lodge more complaints, as seen elsewhere— are not yet substantiated in this case.