Unite offers to be give evidence to committee to set record straight

Birmingham lead commissioner Tony McArdle and managing director Joanne Roney made ‘inaccurate and misleading statements’ to the corporate and finance scrutiny committee, Unite said today in a letter to the committee’s chair.

The letter to committee chair councillor Albert Bore, by Unite national lead officer Onay Kasab provided a fact check of their statements and made an offer to give evidence to the committee on the ongoing bin dispute.

During the committee meeting on 6 January, Mr McArdle falsely claimed that Unite ended negotiations, even though the council publicly announced it would not engage in further talks in July.

Mr McArdle also claimed that the bin workers are demanding huge sums of money – this is not true. These workers are only asking for a fair settlement after the council slashed their pay by up to a quarter. The amount it would cost to end the strikes is dwarfed by the £20 million the council has spent fighting the dispute instead of settling it fairly.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Our members taking industrial action and the general public deserve better than this. It is astonishing that both the council’s senior officer and lead commissioner have been openly providing councillors and the general public with untrue and inaccurate information about the dispute.

"Joanne Roney herself ended negotiations on the dispute after backtracking on the ballpark deal she made at Acas and she has refused to come back to the table ever since.  At the very least, she should now apologise and put the record straight.

"As for the government commissioners who have constantly obstructed negotiations, misled on costs and overstepped their remit when it comes to this dispute - they ought to be sent packing”.

Meanwhile, Ms Roney falsely claimed that the council has not brought in agency workers to break the strike. In fact, the council has spent over £1 million per month extra on agency and contract workers during the strike, three times more than previously.

(Full fact check of committee meeting attached)

In the letter, Onay Kasab said: “I want to ask if you will investigate these matters as chair of the scrutiny committee. I would be happy to attend a meeting or special inquiry session of the committee to give the facts on Unite’s position and answer questions from councillors.

“I would also be glad to invite our King’s Council (KC) to attend and address the issues raised around legal issues, including equal pay liabilities and Unite members’ legal claims against the council. I hope this could be a way forward to increase transparency on all sides and help get us moving back to a resolution to this dispute.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

On 7 January, Birmingham City Council put out a news article with a number of misleading claims regarding the performance of the waste service and the ongoing dispute with its refuse workers.

The council claims waste collection has increased by five per cent on the previous year. It also claims that compared to before the strike missed collections have decreased by 52 per cent and tonnage collected has increased by 22 per cent.

These figures are misleading and have been massaged to allow the council to present itself in a positive light. There have been no recycling collections since February 2025, with residents having no refuse collections of any kind for months during the first half of the year. This was a result of industrial action the council caused by launching fire and rehire attacks of up to £8,000 on loaders and drivers.

Tonnage collected has increased per worker because residents are forced to dump non-recycling, recycling and green waste into one bin. The rise in heavy overflowing bins has led to unsustainable workloads which agency staff are bullied and harassed into completing – resulting in strike action by the agency workers.

The council also claims that all former WRCOs still in council employment have been ‘successfully redeployed’ and that the majority of downgraded drivers have also accepted their new roles. These workers are still on strike over pay cuts and only signed agreements under duress because the council would have fired them if they hadn’t.

It is totally misleading for the council to claim that it is pushing through the attacks on pay following ‘extensive consultations’ with workers and their unions. There have been no meaningful consultations, workers have just been told their pay would be cut and then subjected to fire and rehire.

The council says it is committed to negotiations but has not been in talks since May. It has only provided two offers – both in the first half of 2025. These offers were rejected when workers balloted on them because they were totally inadequate. It is untrue that Unite has not put forward proposals to end the strike. The union has done so on multiple occasions, but the council will not even engage in meetings to discuss them.  

For media enquires ONLY contact senior Unite communications officer Ryan Fletcher on 07849 090215 or 020 3371 2065.

Email: ryan.fletcher@unitetheunion.org

Unite is Britain and Ireland’s largest union with members working across all sectors of the economy. The general secretary is Sharon Graham.