Birmingham bin strike: Rayner urges deal as Unite rejects offer

National World - LocalTV

Birmingham’s bin strike rolls on as Deputy PM Angela Rayner urges workers to accept a new deal. But union leaders reject the offer, saying most staff would still lose out. With piles of rubbish building up, we take a look at where the dispute goes from here.

Transcript

00:00It started with the loss of a health and safety role, now it's a full-blown standoff.

00:07Bin bags spilling out across pavements, rats multiplying and a city choking on weeks of stalemite.

00:14Since March Birmingham's bin workers have downed tools.

00:17The council says it's made a better offer. Ministers are backing that view.

00:21Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner visited a recycling depot and called on workers to accept the deal.

00:28But the union United says the offer barely scratches the surface by claim only a few are protected.

00:34While hundreds face real terms pay cuts and no way to move up the ladder.

00:38For some that's a loss of up to eight grand a year. Try absorbing that on a refuse wage.

00:44The numbers are murky. United says 150 jobs are affected. The council disputes it.

00:49Arguing the role in question doesn't even exist in other authorities.

00:53It's become a tug of war over facts with no common ground in sight.

00:57Meanwhile the rubbish keeps mounting 17,000 tonnes by the council's own reckoning.

01:02Litchfield District Council has been called in to help.

01:05In Westminster some want the army involved.

01:08Police have already warned picketers their actions could break public order laws.

01:12But away from the headlines people are living it.

01:16Especially in the city's poorer areas where bins are overflowing and complaints fall on deaf ears.

01:22It's not just about the strike it's about how quick those at the top are to dismiss those at the bottom.

01:28Workers are now voting on the deal.

01:30Whether they back it or not the message from the streets is loud and clear.

01:34When the system grinds to a halt it's the ordinary folks left to live in the mess.

01:39While those responsible carry on untouched.

01:44That means that at the time of office isn't there yesterday.

01:45You don't have to be worried about that.

01:46Although the system grinds out.

01:47Okay.

01:48The system grinds to a correct issue is in the pre-impact of the laws and laws.

01:49There are no more in place to go in the святings, too.

01:50If you want to be worried about that.

01:53Do it because the system grinds to be in the sp over open, you do it, but I'm in a different way.

01:54What are you doing?

01:55The system does not need to be worried about that.

01:57There are no more in it.

01:58If that was about the last one, it was about to use theêuth of a battle against the battalion.

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