By Jane Haynes

Copyright birminghammail

Hundreds’ of bin workers, their supporters and unions are to march through the city to the HQ of Birmingham City Council in a last-gasp bid to force bosses to ‘strike a deal’ to end the nine month bin strike. The rally tomorrow, Saturday September 20, will be led by Unite the union’s general secretary Sharon Graham, with other unions and community groups expected – some being bussed in to show the strength of backing for the affected bin workers. The still-striking workers and their allies will march from Unite’s West Midlands offices, at B7 4EH, to the middle of Victoria Square , ending up outside the Council House at 11am. Samba and brass bands will accompany the marchers. READ MORE: Birmingham bins boss quizzed over city’s ‘appalling’ recycling rates READ MORE: Birmingham bin dispute warring sides ‘not speaking’ after six months of all-out strike Birmingham community groups Birmingham Rise Up and End the Bin Strikes will join them. The union claims it has the backing of the majority of city residents, though that’s disputed by the council. Around 2,500 households have put stickers of support on their bins to show their backing for the striking waste staff. Members of the Unite union recently voted to extend their industrial action until March 2026, accusing the council of being underhand, trampling on workers’ rights and being dictated to by the Government and its appointed commissioners over what to do. The city council has maintained it has ‘reached the absolute limit’ of what it could offer and has launched a PR offensive claiming the kerbside collection service for residents is better now than pre-strike, with more rubbish picked up and fewer missed collections. Formal redundancy consultation remains under way with around 170 bin truck driver leaders affected by plans to downgrade their role by removing managerial responsibilities from them. Some have accepted voluntary redundancy or transferred to other roles. Legal action over the conduct of pickets and bitter public statements over who is to blame make the prospect of an agreed resolution between Birmingham City Council and the union ‘very unlikely’, say insiders. Ms Graham has said that council workers are being lined up to ‘pay the price for years of austerity’. She has condemned the Labour government over their handling of the issue. The dispute kicked off at the end of last year when the city council confirmed its intention to ‘delete’ the role of a senior position on its bin trucks, called a Waste Recycling Collections Officer, as part of its plans to transform the under-performing service. Around 170 staff were affected, with some offered to be redeployed to other services and some offered the chance to retrain as drivers – at the time a higher graded role. Later plans emerged to downgrade the status and pay of the bin truck drivers as part of a ‘job evaluation’ exercise under way across the council to end equal pay claims. That triggered a new wave of fury among waste service staff. Some of those who had undergone retraining claimed they had been duped. In a statement to the full council earlier this week, council leader John Cotton said the waste service needed to be transformed. “It has not been delivering an effective service to too many parts of this city for too long. I have also been very clear that we cannot pursue any outcome that would cause further problems around our equal pay liability, something that has dogged our council for many years. “It is regrettable that we have not been able to reach a negotiated settlement through (the arbitration service) Acas but I think I have a duty as leader of this council to ensure we are not putting at risk the finances of this council or causing further issues around equal pay and we need to press forward with changes that deliver an effective waste collection service.” He added the ‘extensive negotiations’ had broken down because Unite had ‘unfortunately’ rejected offers put on the table, and presented proposals that were not acceptable to the council ‘given the absolute priority to protect our financial situation and not to further imperil our situation with regard to equal pay. I have been clear throughout I wanted to reach agreement…but we cannot cross those red lines as that would be a betrayal to the people of this city.” Read the council’s full statement on its transformation of bin services in this article here.