The Birmingham bin strike has been rolling on for 18 months, and the workers - organised by Unite - have long suspected that the council's refusal to negotiate and willingness to throw money at breaking the strike, more than it would have cost to have settled the dispute, suggests the local authority wants to break the union. And yesterday, ITV West Midlands regional news confirmed it. They reported on a leaked council document from March that set out a plan to sack the bin workers while bypassing councillors, a move the document recognises would fall foul of the new unfair dismissal legislation and cost the council about £23m. People familiar with local authorities often complain about officer-led councils, but this is something else entirely. Unelected senior officers and Whitehall commissioners appear to be in cahoots when this scheme was hatched, and all of them deserve firm and tough action taken against them.
The bulletin on these revelations covers 15 minutes of the report.
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