Blackburn with Darwen bins strike set to continue next week
6:26pm Wednesday 7th May 2008
THOUSANDS more bins in Blackburn and Darwen will remain unemptied after council workers confirmed they would follow-up their two-day strike with another walkout next week.
And the dispute could mean that some households still on fortnightly Thursday collections could go up to four weeks without their rubbish being taken away.
Staff at Blackburn with Darwen Council demonstrated over pay outside the town hall today, and their action has meant about 15,000 rubbish bins are being left on the borough's streets.
Street cleaners and gardeners joined the protest over controversial changes to council staff's wages.
The action is set to continue tomorrow, with a similar number of homes to be hit.
Skip collection, street cleaning and gardening services are also affected.
When they return to work, staff will "work to rule", meaning bin workers will not collect extra rubbish from previous days.
The demonstrations have been organised by the Unite union, and representative Ros Shepherd said more strikes would be held on Thursday and Friday of next week.
That has left town hall bosses trying to organise collections for the hundreds of homes which last had their bins emptied on April 24.
Today picket lines were set up at the direct services depot on Davy Field Road, and there were angry demonstrations by about 50 people outside Blackburn town hall.
Road sweeper Trevor Garsden, 59, said: "I have been here 40 years and I've never seen anything like this.
"Some of these people have mortgages and they are having all this money taken off them."
Council bosses say measures will be put in place to cope with the walkouts, but some homes across the borough will not have their bins emptied for four weeks as the strikes drag on, according to refuse driver Joe Linnane.
The 53-year-old said: "We do nine runs in a day, of about 1,200 to 1,300 bins per round. There's no way they will be able to cope with that."
Ms Shepherd said she was "delighted" with the demonstration, and said more people would join in tomorrow.
She added: "We are not trying to inconvenience people, but this is how need to get our point across."
Mum-of-two Andrea Ingham left her full-up refuse bin outside her Primula Drive home yesterday - but it was not picked up.
The 34-year-old said: "We do our bit with recycling, and we pay our council tax, but it's going to have to go back inside now.
"The bin men do a good job and without them we would be in trouble. This isn't what they deserve."
Andy Smith, 37, also of Primula Drive, added: "We have a six-month-old daughter and our bin is full of nappies.
"It is frustrating and I do not know what we're going to do - but if they're taking that much of a pay-cut you have to sympathise."
The salary changes are a result of the job evaluation process, part of a nationwide bid to set men's and women's salaries on the same level.
As well as some staff being given pay rises, hundreds of low-paid workers are facing cuts of thousands of pounds to their salaries.
And they have been warned they will be sacked if they do not agree to the new terms and conditions inside a 90-day deadline.