Brighton and Hove bin strike on hold after ‘encouraging’ offer

A Brighton and Hove bin strike could yet be averted after the binmen’s union said that it had received an “encouraging” letter from the city council.

Rubbish piled up in St James’s Street during last year’s strike
Picture by Dominic Alves from Flickr

The GMB union said last week that industrial action could be on the cards following almost a year of disrupted services since the strike ended.

Binmen are still unhappy about changes to their rounds which were introduced in October last year. They say that they are being expected to do too much with too few staff and too few vehicles.

After talks on Tuesday, the GMB said that it had put forward a number of solutions and had given Brighton and Hove City Council a deadline of midday today (Friday 11 April) to respond.

This afternoon, it tweeted:

Today we received a letter from Council which we find encouraging, have agreed to meet 23rd April, until then possible strike action on hold

— GMB Sussex Branch (@GMBSussexBranch) April 11, 2014

Branch secretary Mark Turner said: “We’re looking for meaningful negotiations on that day because that’s the day we’ll have to go back to our members.

“There’s movement on the rounds. What the council have come up with is positive.

“Once we’ve flushed out the details of that, it should benefit all sides – our members, the council and most importantly the public.”