Blackburn with Darwen bin strike on: Friday and Monday
4:55pm Wednesday 14th May 2008
BIN men in Blackburn and Darwen will begin another two-day strike on Friday as part of the continuing row over council wages.
Staff in the Transport and General Workers Union met yesterday and agreed on another round of industrial action, despite last minute pleas from council bosses to defer their action.
The strike was originally planned to take place Thursday and Friday but a delay in giving Blackburn with Darwen Council sufficient notice has meant it will now be Friday and Monday.
The latest action follows a two-day strike last week in protest at a new pay structure being introduced by the council.
The controversial pay review, aimed at ending inequalities, has resulted in hundreds of workers earning less than £15,000 facing salary cuts.
Thousands of wheelie bins went uncollected last week, prompting council bosses to use skips and recruit Blackburn-based Neale's Waste Management to collect some of the rubbish.
About 300 binmen, street cleaners and gardeners from the union, which is part of Unite, are to take part in the action.
Last week a 15,000 homes were affected by the action, around a fifth of the borough. More or less all areas of the borough are affected as collection routes are not restriction to specific areas.
T&G spokesman Roz Shepherd said the decision to resume the strike came after workers said a resolution had not been found.
High-level talks involving council chief executive Graham Burgess have been held in a bid to avert action.
These negotiations persuaded GMB members to postpone their proposed strike last week.
Ms Shepherd said: "I think this will cause a disruption to services, but that is the point we are trying to make.
"I don't want to see staff losing money.
"We said last week that the strike would take place over two weeks and that is what is happening."
But council chief executive Graham Burgess said: "It is really disappointing, especially as binmen aren't the people losing out in the wage review. The strike is totally unnecessary. I asked them to defer the strike for a week but they wouldn't."
Tony Watson, the council's cleansing and amenities manager, said: "We would remind all residents to put their bins out as usual on their collection day and we will endeavour to collect them.
"If the industrial action does go ahead, skips will again be placed in the community to ease any problems residents may have."