Angela Rayner has broken with her trade union mates to demand an end to Birmingham’s appalling bin strikes, as Labour faces pressure ahead of the local elections.
Amid the Tories making great play about Labour’s track record in local government, the Deputy Prime Minister has now intervened to demand the strikers accept the deal and get back to work.
On a visit to the rat-infested city, Ms Rayner said bin collectors should accept the “improved” deal and get back to cleaning up Birmingham.
She said the dispute is “causing misery and disruption to residents and the backlog must be dealt with quickly to address public health risks”.
She insisted that the latest revised offer to refuge collectors is improved, adding: “I would urge Unite to suspend the action and accept the improved deal so we achieve fairness for both workers and residents of this city.”
It comes after workers have been on strike for at least a month, sparking widespread concerns about public health and rats the size of cats.
Unite’s General Secretary Sharon Graham wrote to Ms Rayner last week, condemning negotiations with the council as a “farce”.
She wrote: “Every attempt being made to solve the dispute by Unite negotiators in the room, is being met with ‘a computer says no’ answer.”
On Thursday a spokesman for the major trade union fumed that it is “outrageous that those with a political axe to grind are trying to score cheap points by attacking Unite members, who are fighting against these brutal wage cuts”.
They said they make no apology for “defending workers from paying the price for mistakes made by politicians”.
“Birmingham’s refuse workers will have their union’s total backing for as long as it takes,”
“It is clear that in ballot after ballot workers have rejected losing up to £8,000 in pay with no pay protection. Maybe that should focus people’s minds.”
Today’s intervention from Ms Rayner, who is often seen as the left’s strongest voice in Sir Keir Starmer’s government, suggests Labour is feeling pressure as a result of the bin chaos ahead of May’s local elections.
The Conservatives have made huge play about the bankrupt council’s failings, with Kemi Badenoch warning: “Vote Labour, get trash”.
Yesterday, the Tories’ shadow Local Government Secretary Kevin Hollinrake warned that the union showdown could drag public health in the country’s second largest city back to that of the Victorian era.
He wrote: “We’ve long known the dangers rats pose – from the tales of the Pied Piper to modern-day science.”
“Diseases like Weil’s, Hantavirus, and rat-bite fever are not fiction – they are real threats, and they thrive in filth.
“Labour isn’t just dragging Birmingham back to the 1970s – they’re taking it all the way back to the Victorian era.”
