Piles of garbage nonetheless swamp Birmingham streets as strikes attain one yr mark
It’s been exactly a year since bin workers in Birmingham downed tools in a dispute over pay and work conditions, and the situation is seemingly further than ever from being solved
A year on from the start of Birmingham’s bin strike, conditions are worse than they’ve ever been. Piles of rubbish can still be seen on the streets of the city with no date set for when they will be collected.
On January 6 last year, members of the Unite union began a series of one-day strikes in a dispute over pay and work conditions, which soon escalated in a full-blown strike announced on March 11 as the government began to stall in negotiations.
But with a year of chaos now taking hold in the city, residents are now being split on what they think of the strikes. Meanwhile, the streets are being plagued with bins that are overflowing and filling streets with trash.
Horrendous pics from Small Heath show even amidst the cold snap, black bin bags can be seen strewn across the street, with cardboard boxes and gas cannisters being seen amongst the items being dumped.
Panseluta, a mum-of-two who lives in the area, has hit out at the council for its inability to get a deal done. She added that the problem is now getting so bad that rats are swarming the roads she lives on.
“This has been bad here for six or seven months,” she explained, “there’s bags everywhere, rubbish everywhere. It’s cleaner now but before there was too many rubbish.
“You can’t walk or go outside at night because the rats are so big, you can’t walk; you can’t walk through the streets because of the rubbish. I’ve been here six years, but this road is so bad — it’s a little bit cleaner as they’ve started taking some waste.”
Panseluta admitted that the conditions outside are so bad that she does not want her children to go outside to play, in case they catch an infection. Other residents have said the bin strikes are attracting fly-tippers who are only making the problem worse.
Stephen Message said: “Who in their right mind is going to want to sit on this bench and have a view of the canal with this here? I just think it’s horrible, it just shows they [fly-tippers] have no consideration for the community.”
However, bin strikers have said that despite living amongst the mess, they said they would continue their industrial action for as long as necessary. Mike Masters, 55, has been taking to the streets for the first time, and said he has seen the huge support for their cause.
“We didn’t think we’d be out here long and we’d sit around at a table and talk about it,” he said. “It’s massively impacted me, there’s me and my wife at home and we’ve still got bills and mortgages to pay.”
He added that workers have gone back to their picket lines, with the hope that they will get what they are after from the first year. However, he admitted that things could get worse before they get better.
“A lot of the people on the picket line live in Birmingham, so they are affected by the issues,” he explained. “I don’t think an end is in sight.
“The only thing we can do is stand there and carry on and hope the residents are with us. Something has to give.”
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