Birmingham council leader says end of city’s bin strike ‘within sight’

The end of the year-long Birmingham bin strike is now “within sight”, the city council leader has said after committing to an improved offer for refuse workers. On Monday, John Cotton, the Labour leader of Birmingham city council, said a new, improved offer could be made to workers that he hoped would “end the strike once and for all”. “After months of frustration and delay, for the first time in over 12 months, a negotiated settlement to end the bin strike is now within sight,” he said. Bin workers in Birmingham began striking in January 2025, and stopped working completely in March that year, in a dispute over proposed pay cuts and role changes. It led to the council declaring a major incident when 17,000 tonnes of uncollected rubbish built up across the city. Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, said: “The move made today by the leader of the council is a vindication of the bin workers’ struggle for a decent deal. “I salute the fortitude of my members who have needlessly been forced to endure months of attacks and hardship to get us to this point.” Graham blamed the “vindictive interference” of the government commissioners who were sent to run the council after it in effect went bankrupt in 2023 for blocking the deal to date. “Their lack of both experience and industrial relations competence has been a major factor in this dispute, and their malevolent game-playing has been an absolute disgrace,” she said. …