THE ongoing bin strike in Warrington is set to be extended until Christmas Eve, with the borough council now escalating legal action to the High Court.
The Unite Union has indicated that the current bin strike by its members, which is scheduled to end on Monday 4 December is now going to continue from December 5-24.
In the latest update, a Warrington Borough Council spokesperson said: “We continue to pursue the legal options available to us and have been in constant liaison with our Solicitors.
“We have again asked Unite for the strikes to be cancelled immediately, but at this point the decision has been taken by their members to continue. We are also aware that Unite have stated their intention to conduct another period of strike action from 5 December until 24 December. It is therefore more important than ever that we continue to pursue legal action to stop any further strikes.
“To that end, we have commenced legal proceedings in the High Court and our case will be heard on Tuesday 28 November at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
“Notwithstanding the legal action we are pursuing, we remain fully committed to discussing and listening to the concerns of all of our Trade Unions locally, through our proper channels. This has been, and always will be, the case.
“This week, we have been able to send out a very small number of waste staff. We are focusing our efforts on areas that are in most need of bin collections, including a number of known communal areas, with this prioritisation an incredibly difficult task. Collections in these areas is difficult, as bin wagon capacity is being reached very quickly due to the amount of waste being collected. At this point, we are not able to offer door-to-door bin collections and we know there will be several other communal areas that are not visited by our available bin crews during the strike period.
“We regret the continued disruption and frustration that our residents and communities are facing.”
For more information about the bin strikes and to see the latest updates, visit warrington.gov.uk/news/industrial-action-update
While a national pay award has been agreed, Unite members locally are holding out locally for better terms and conditions.
Although a verbal agreement was reached, nothing has yet been agreed in writing to satisfy the Union.
As reported previously the High Court injunction is set to cost the council circa £50,000.
Bin strike update – we have commenced legal proceedings in the High Court and our case will be heard on Tuesday 28 November.
The current bin strike by Unite members is taking place until Monday 4 December.
Refuse workers continue to stand strong in their ongoing dispute with Warrington Council ✊
📣 The message is clear @WarringtonBC, resolve this dispute by returning to the negotiating table and participate in meaningful discussions pic.twitter.com/6yMDdMXibh
— Unite North West (@Unite_NorthWest) November 24, 2023
Keep informed with the latest updates 👉 https://t.co/g86oeRMOJD pic.twitter.com/hA1lZOiEJp
— Warrington Borough Council (@WarringtonBC) November 24, 2023
Council seeking court injunction at a cost of £50k to end bin strike
4 Comments
A council that cared about its residents would have changed the system at tips to ensure you could put all recyclable waste into a single receptacle and hired a means of transferring that waste to its normal sorting destination. That would reduce the time taken for each user to transfer the waste and increase capacity. Obviously there is a need for non recyclable receptacles as well. Additionally they would have opened new transfer points on more sites to cope with the volume which needs to far exceed that of the normal recycling centres. However, what the council have done is nothing, no mitigation at all.
When the binmen get sacked the councillors who form the executive, or cabinet, can go too. Clearly they will not be missed.
The organisation of this saga has been a shambles by WBC .
Remember this in next years elections
agree with Gary, lets VOTE these CLOWNS out in next elections!
YOU BINMEN WILL BE GETTING SACKED SOON!
DO NOT PAY FOR GREEN BIN NEXT YEAR! HIT THE COUNCIL AND SELFISH BINMEN HARD WITH NO PAYMENT FOR IT!
Stunned to hear that the bin men are being paid 70% of their wage during strike days – striking nurses were not paid for strike days!