Bin crews in Brighton and Hove could strike “within weeks”

Brighton and Hove bin crews could be on strike within a matter of weeks – leaving rubbish to mount up during the summer months.

Following a crunch meeting today (Tuesday April 8), union representatives have given Brighton and Hove City Council chiefs a deadline of Friday at noon to look again at how it organises rounds.

Refuse workers claim that cost-cutting measures introduced in October – which saw five refuse and recycling crews taken off the road – means they are being expected to do too much with too few staff and too few vehicles.

This has meant bins have gone uncollected with waste piling up in some areas of the city.

After a two hour meeting today between union representatives and the council, town hall chiefs have pledged to look again at the current situation.

Mark Turner, of the GMB, told The Latest: “We will be very disappointed if the council pooh-poohs all our ideas

“The ball is now in the council’s court. If they come back on Friday with something to discuss then that will be progress.

“We need some concrete things going forward, only then will there not be any action. They have to wake up and smell the coffee.

“I fully understand where the public are coming from – they want a basic service – but it isn’t our members who are creating this problem.”

Mr Turner said if no progress is made by Friday then the union will present the council with notice it is preparing for industrial action.

This process, along with the need to hold a ballot of members, means that any strike would not take place until May.

It would be the second in a less that a year after refuse staff walked out last summer over changes to pay and allowances which left most of them worse off.

When asked why the threat of strike action had only come now when the days are getting longer and temperatures increasing, Mr Turner said it was because the council’s six month “bedding in” period was now over.

He told The Latest: “It’s nothing to do the weather, if only it was. The fact is we have been raising these issues and we have not been listened to.

“What they need to do is look again at the rounds. We’re not saying all five [scrapped rounds] need to go back on the road but they have cut it too fine.

“Every day this week they are putting an additional two crews out and there have been no problems so the proof is in their own pudding.”

In a statement, Geoff Raw, the council’s executive director of environment, development and housing, said: “We met with representatives from the GMB union this morning (Tuesday April 8) about our refuse and recycling service. The union has raised a number of issues that staff have with the changed refuse and recycling rounds.

“We are working hard to reach a way forward on these issues.

“We recognise and appreciate the efforts of our staff to work with us and hope to clarify these issues swiftly. We have agreed with GMB that we will respond on a number of issues tomorrow and on Friday.”

For more details on your street’s collection, visit this link.