Council gets court order over bin lorry blocking

Birmingham City Council has been granted a court order to stop waste vehicles being blocked from leaving depots.

The authority believes more than 12,000 tonnes of uncollected waste have accumulated on streets this week as all-out strike action by refuse workers continues.

Collections were said to have been disrupted "due to industrial action by pickets" where police recently scaled down their presence.

Unite, which is representing workers, said the actions of members on picket lines were lawful and peaceful.

Delayed collections during the initial weeks of the industrial action were down partly to picket lines blocking trucks from leaving waste facilities.

At the time, striking workers insisted they were only stopping lorries if they had safety concerns, but ugly scenes prompted Labour council leader John Cotton to condemn what he called "violence".

West Midlands Police last week said a threshold for using special powers was no longer being met but it would "continue to have a presence" at depots.

However the council said the move had led to an "increase in disruption at our depots, with workers and vehicles being prevented from doing their jobs".

Late on Friday, the council said it had secured an interim injunction which would last until Thursday when a further legal hearing will take place.

"Everyone has a right to protest [but] the council has a public health duty to uphold and clearing waste is central to this," it said.

"This is not something we wanted to do and have given Unite many opportunities to co-operate with us and avoid this course of action."

All-out strike action began on 11 March but rubbish collections have been disrupted since the start of January.

The row is now focused on proposed cuts to the pay of bin lorry drivers, with talks entering their 11th week.

Unite has blamed government-appointed commissioners, who have been overseeing the council's operations since its effective bankruptcy, for the apparent lack of progress.

General secretary Sharon Graham said negotiations had been "a shambles" and called on the council leader to "stop playing games, get in the room and solve this dispute".

"The bottom line is that our members can't afford to have savage pay cuts of up to £8,000 with no mitigation," she said.

When contacted in response to the court order, a Unite spokesperson said: "Unite will continue to conduct a lawful and peaceful picket.

"It is regrettable the council is expending its energies and prioritising high court action while its promise to table a fair offer to workers who face financial misery through the planned imposition of huge pay cuts has been repeatedly delayed."

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