Birmingham council meeting halted as bin strike anger boils over

Anger over ongoing bin strikes in Birmingham has sparked repeated disruption of a city council meeting.

Birmingham City Council’s full meeting had to be adjourned after three separate interruptions from the public gallery.

In one, a man called to leader John Cotton: “Would you take an £8,000 pay cut Cotton?” while the councillor attempted to answer a resident’s question about the all-out strike action, which began on 11 March.

Bosses from Unite the Union claim changes to how rubbish is collected in the city will see up to 170 workers face that pay-cut annually, but the council disputes this, saying just 17 people could lose up to £6,000 a year.

The man barracking Cotton continued to demand an answer, before swearing as he was escorted out of the chamber, to the sound of applause from others in the public gallery.

Earlier, a protest in support of the striking bin workers had been held outside the council house ahead of the meeting, with the council’s leadership urged to stop the “pay cuts”.

The bin strike, which started in January with a series of one-day walkouts, began over a dispute between the Labour-run council and Unite over plans to scrap a waste recycling and collection officer role.

At times, it has led to thousands of tonnes of uncollected rubbish stacking up on the city’s streets.

At the meeting earlier, councillors were interrupted twice more, before the Lord Mayor decided to adjourn it for a short break.

A meeting on 20 May to mark the election of Mayor Zafar Iqbal was also disrupted by people calling out in support of the striking workers and blowing whistles from the public gallery.

Conciliatory talks between the local authority and Unite, chaired by the arbitration service Acas, have so far failed to reach a solution both sides can agree on.