Birmingham bin distress ‘might unfold’ to extra councils as firebrand union humiliatingly rejects Labour’s pleas to take ‘good provide’

Brits were warned that Birmingham bin misery could spread today after workers ignored Labour’s pleas to end strikes.

Union officials said there is ‘potential’ for walkouts to happen in other areas of the country as they demanded more concessions on pay.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner had urged Unite to accept a ‘significantly improved offer’ to end the month-long crisis, which has seen rats running through mountains of bin bags.

Business minister Sarah Jones repeated the message as she toured broadcast studios this morning, insisting: ‘Fundamentally what needs to happen now is the strike needs to be called off. 

‘Unite need to accept the offer that’s on the table. It’s a good offer and that is what we are asking them to do, and that is the way we’re going to get back to normal in Birmingham.’ 

However, it was announced yesterday that union members in Birmingham had voted overwhelmingly against the council’s ‘totally inadequate’ proposal.

Brits were warned that Birmingham bin misery could spread today after workers ignored Labour’s pleas to end strikes

A rat spotted running towards rubbish bags in Birmingham today

Business minister Sarah Jones repeated the message as she toured broadcast studios this morning, insisting: ‘Fundamentally what needs to happen now is the strike needs to be called off.’

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham (pictured) has accused Labour of attacking workers’ reputations

That scotched hoped of an immediate end to strikes which have left 21,000 tons of rubbish piling up on the streets of England’s second city.

The rejection ramped up pressure on ministers to get tough on their ‘paymasters’, with accusations that Labour’s inaction was taking Britain ‘back to the 1970s’.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham insisted they would not shy away from further action if public sector workers are losing out. 

‘If other councils decide to make low paid workers pay for bad decisions that they did not make, workers paying the price yet again, then absolutely, of course, we will have to take action in those other areas,’ she said.

Onay Kasab, national lead officer at Unite, was asked on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 if the strike action in Birmingham could spread to other parts of the country.

He said: ‘Well, if other local authorities look to cut the pay of essential public service workers, then there is the potential for strike action spreading.

‘That’s why different political choices need to be made.’

Mr Kasab added: ‘It’s not about doing things more efficiently, I don’t think cutting the pay of public service workers is doing things more efficiently.

‘If the pay of public service workers is attacked in other local authorities, then we shouldn’t be surprised when people take action.’

Mr Kasab denied that the union was ‘leveraging the public’.

He told Times Radio: ‘The offer from the council would still lead to a sharp, cliff edge drop in pay, up to £8,000 a year, for our members.

‘They have told us in negotiations that they’re looking to cut the pay of drivers from around £40,000 to £32,000 a year.

‘We’ve been told that people have been given the opportunity to go on driver training. That’s brilliant. However, we also know that there’s no driver vacancies, so those people will be put straight down to a grade two role with the cut in pay.

Labour was humiliated yesterday as bin workers voted to prolong crippling strikes in Birmingham (Pictured: Uncollected rubbish fills the streets in Balsall Heath)

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner had urged Unite to accept a ‘significantly improved offer’ to end the month-long crisis, which has seen rats running through mountains of bin bags

 Rubbish spilling out of bins in the Shard End suburb of Birmingham yesterday

‘So far the council has decided to go down their own line. We’re meeting again tomorrow, so there are solutions that we’ve put that could solve this dispute within days.’

Conservative West Midlands MP Wendy Morton said the rats – dubbed Squeaky Blinders after the TV drama set in the city – would be ‘dancing in the streets’.

Ms Morton said: ‘This really shows yet again that Labour-led Birmingham Council and this Labour Government are failing residents and our region.

‘They need to get a grip, stop blaming others, and face the unions – their paymasters.’

Tory local government spokesman Kevin Hollinrake added: ‘Yet again, Labour proves utterly incapable of standing up for Birmingham’s residents against their union paymasters.’