It looks like the long-running strike by Birmingham bin workers is, at last, drawing to a close. This is the strike that began on 11th March of last year, long enough to earn its own Wikipedia page.

On Monday, Unite the union declared victory saying that a statement by the leader of Birmingham City Council (BCC) was a vindication of the bin workers’ struggle for a decent deal that demonstrated the power of workers backed by their union to resist effective pay cuts of up to £8,000.

At the same time, the union declared that: “It is an absolute abhorrence that this deal has been blocked not just once but twice by unelected unaccountable commissioners and officers at Birmingham City Council, who enjoy eye watering pay packets and no consequence for their actions.” These “unaccountable commissioners” were imposed in Autumn 2023, when BCC issued a section 114 notice, the local government equivalent of bankruptcy. This stopped all future spending except on statutory services, which BCC said was essential to get to a sound financial footing. The bankruptcy was blamed on equal pay liabilities and a disastrous attempt to unify its IT systems, but as is the norm in such cases nobody mentions the crippling interest payments local authorities must pay, which means councils pay several times over for buildings. Unite and GMB both claimed BCC’s estimates of the cost of the equal pay dispute were far too high.

BCC emerged from ‘bankruptcy’ in February after raising the council tax by 17.5 per cent and selling off £750 million worth of assets. Unite fears the deal will be frustrated by the commissioners but welcomed the good faith of the council leader. Cynics noted this came just before the local elections. Reform, Tory, Liberal Democrat and Green Party councillors all united to deplore the timing of the announcement, with a Green saying: “Labour could have resolved this strike months ago, saving misery and millions of pounds.”

The dispute saw claims that the limited service during the dispute focused on the city’s posh areas, and saw injunctions taken out against mass pickets that were supported by many trade union general secretaries. Unite reduced its affiliation to Labour by £580,000 because of the dispute. Among the organisations BCC attempted to use to break the strike was neighbouring Coventry council’s wholly owned company Tom White Waste, which was briefly being sub-contracted to Birmingham council to collect household rubbish. The council claimed the dispute cost it £34 million.

Others expressed doubts about the deal (which still has to be voted upon by the 300 workers). Unite’s press release was unusually short on details and made no mention of the £8,000, which Unite said affected 170 workers when BCC sought to abolish the grade of Waste Recycling and Collection Officer, which it claims no other council has.

Onay Kasab, Unite’s national lead officer, said the offer would include compensation of £16,000
for workers, which will now include compensation for drivers.

Reading between the lines, it means that they will get a two-year ‘cushion’ against the impacts of job evaluation processes, rather than the six months originally promised. In addition, agency workers who joined the strike will be offered a path to permanent employment, disciplinary issues will be quashed, and for pension purposes the dispute will be treated as authorised absence.

Local government staff are not among the best-paid workers. In March, local government bosses offered a 3.3 per cent pay offer to local government workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, well short of the demands submitted by unions.

Unison rejected this last month, but what action they will take remains to be seen. The claim by the main unions for 2026/27 was for an increase of at least £3,000 or 10 per cent whichever is greater, with a minimum of £15 per hour for all staff, a two-hour reduction in the working week and an increase of one day annual leave. No mention of the non-pay elements was made in the bosses’ offer.

Unite has also denounced the offer, deploring the fact that it was presented as “full and final” by the national employers without any meaningful negotiation with Unite or its sister unions, adding that it was a real-terms pay cut.

Sharon Graham said that: “Council workers must no longer be penalised for a crisis not of their making. Austerity is a political choice and the national employers must change tack and invest in frontline public sector workers.”

Further down the Unite food chain, national officer for local authorities Clare Keogh added: “This is a disappointing offer which falls far short of our pay claim and is yet another real terms pay cut. To add insult to injury local authority workers will be angry that the national employers have refused to meaningfully negotiate on all aspects of the workers’ claim.”

Both unions note that cuts to council services and budgets have resulted in local government workers enduring a real-terms pay cut of 30 per cent since 2010 and complain the low wages make recruitment and retention difficult.

This will be a test for new Unison general secretary Angela Egan, who was elected, albeit on a very low turnout, to reject the right-wing incumbent who was seen as far too close to the Labour Government. With Unite’s Sharon Graham facing a similar contest later this year, it is possible we might see some more action than normal from the bureaucrats who run our unions.