Birmingham bin workers vote to continue strike

The strike began on 30 June

Birmingham bin workers involved in a long-running dispute over job cuts have voted to continue strike action.

Unite said action was likely to take place for another 12 weeks after 92.4% voted in favour at a second ballot.

The union is at the High Court asking for an interim injunction against the city council, after it issued redundancy notices to 113 middle-grade refuse workers on 31 August.

The authority said all the workers were being offered other roles.

It said it was making changes to modernise the service.

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Workers have been on strike since 30 June and action is currently taking the form of three separate hours of stoppages a day.

Unite said it had an agreed deal with council leader John Clancy, who resigned over the issue last week, to keep jobs.

Union leaders want High Court judge Mr Justice Fraser to block redundancy moves by the authority.

He is analysing rival arguments from lawyers representing Unite and the council at a hearing in London, which began on Monday and is due to end on Tuesday.

The council is employing agency crews to clear the backlog of rubbish, visiting each of the city's wards once every four weeks.

The failure to recycle waste during Birmingham's bin strike has cost the city council £300,000 in lost income so far.

Interim council leader Ian Ward has said: "The current dispute is not in the interests of the council or the residents of the city of Birmingham, and what we all have to do is resolve that dispute."